Statement on Article 19 on Accessibility

Japan Disability Forum

August 5, 2005

Thank you, chair.

On behalf of Japan Disability Forum, a member of IDC, I would like to make a brief statement on the draft article 19, which is a very important part of this Convention. Japan Disability Forum expresses its support to the IDC draft text and endorses the statements of our colleagues.

I have two points. First, JDF is of the view that privately owned or developed buildings, facilities and services for the public use should be covered by the obligations in this Article. This is an issue mentioned in footnote 69 of the Working Group Draft. The lack of accessibility in the private sector is serious and this convention must address it, as a matter of urgency. That is why JDF does not support the addition of the word, "progressive", in this Article.

The second point I would like to make is the information needs of people who are hard of hearing. The barriers faced by hard of hearing people, people who do not hear well but do not know sign languages, have been under-represented, to say the least, in the discussions and negotiations of this Convention. Hard of hearing people with different degrees of hearing loss are estimated to account for approximately 5 % of the total population. Thus, JDF welcomes the IDC draft on this article, which refers to "effective methods of making oral communication available" to hard of hearing people, as well as speech-to-text interpreters. JDF supports the inclusion of these expressions in the second paragraph of this article, if the view of the floor is to follow the Working Group Draft.

Thank you for this opportunity to share our views.