Toru Ichikawa
editorial board member of the Kyodo News and Lifestyle News Department

What thoughts and feelings did individuals with disabilities have while watching the Tokyo Paralympics held from August to September of last year? Kyodo News conducted a questionnaire targeting individuals with disabilities nationwide in order to utilize what was learned during the Games for future reference rather than just leaving these lessons as a transient event. From the answers given, we can see the current social issues surrounding persons with disabilities.

▽ 51 medals, the second-highest in Japan's participation history

It's been almost half a year since the Games were held, and some people may have forgotten what happened at the Paralympics. Looking back, about 4,400 people from 162 countries/regions and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team participated in the Games that started on August 24th. The opening ceremony showcased a girl in a wheelchair acting out a one-winged airplane. This earned her quite a favorable response. It was even said that her performance was, "better than the Olympic Games themselves."

539 events in 22 competitions were held, with Japan winning 51 medals, the second highest in history, including 13 gold. There were many medalists in swimming, track and field, and badminton. The men's wheelchair basketball team competed with the United States in the final, and Shingo Kunieda, who won his third victory in wheelchair tennis, became hot topics. On the other hand, in Tokyo, the number of people infected with the new coronavirus reached a record high (at that time) of 5,908 people a day in mid-August, and many doubts were raised about hosting the Games during the "Fifth Wave" of the epidemic.

▽ Led to a better understanding of disabilities … 70%

Kyodo News conducted a questionnaire through the Japan Disability Forum consisting of 13 groups including national organizations of individuals with disabilities for about one month from mid-September of last year after the completion of the Games. We received valid responses from 763 people.

First, when asked if there was any change in their feelings due to the hosting of the Paralympics, most respondents, 40% of them, chose the option of "I felt positive when I saw the activities of the athletes.” Those who chose “No particular change,” were 32%, and was followed by 22% who chose “My feelings were mixed due to the risk associated with the new strand of the coronavirus.”

Next, when asked "Do you think that hosting the Games has led to your own disability as well as disabilities, in general, to be better understood by the public?” A total of 70% of the respondents answered, "I think so," and "I think to some extent.” While there were pros and cons regarding the Games, the majority were positive (Fig. 1).

In a similar survey conducted from June to July of 2019, approximately one year prior to the initially scheduled opening of the Games, 62% of the 564 respondents answered, "I think it will lead to an understanding of disabilities." It also seems the fact that many people saw the success of the athletes brought about an effect that exceeded expectations.

The most common reason for respondents to think that the Games would lead to a greater understanding of individuals with disabilities was because 31% said, “The activities of athletes attracted social attention to these individuals.” This is continued by 28% saying that “There were more opportunities to see these individuals through the media.”

As for the influence of hosting the Games without spectators on the overall understanding of individuals with disabilities, 55% said, "I think it was the same whether spectators were present or not,” which was a majority of respondents. This was followed by 12% who said, "I actually think they understood better without spectators," and 33% said, "They didn't understand as good without spectators."

A woman with a visual impairment in her 60s from Kanagawa Prefecture told us about her experience saying, "Something happened that made me realize that society has changed after the Games." She said, "More people than usual were offering support at the train station that I often use. It's a small thing, but I think that the para-athletes’ wonderful impression was a big step in changing the collective consciousness of society."

▽ Those who were discriminated against … 34%

On the other hand, 30% of the respondents answered, "I don't think it led to any understanding of disabilities whatsoever." Many of these respondents went on to say that the reasons for this were "It will probably end in just temporary excitement and social interest in disabilities will not continue." Also, "The disabilities targeted for the Paralympic Games were only physical, visual, and intellectual disabilities." "If we are truly to have a realization of an inclusive society, we wanted the Games to be held together with the regular Olympics.” They also said, "The disabled athletes did a good job, but it may have looked like persons with disabilities, in general, didn't try very hard."   (Fig. 2).

When asked, "Have you ever been or felt discriminated against by the words and actions of others because of your disability recently?" 34% of the respondents answered, "Yes." It was almost the same in the 2019 survey at 36%, and it can be seen that the "barrier-free mind" advocated at the time of the Games has not made much progress.

When asked about specific examples of discrimination, in addition to experiences, such as being refused the use of some facilities and services and not receiving written communications at the hospital, there were also cases of feeling alienated because of not receiving certain tasks at work.

▽ Disappearing accommodations

A woman in her 40s living in Tokyo, who was born with a hearing impairment, commented that "During the Games, some TV programs included captioning that was real-time and did not differ from the video feed during live broadcasting. It gave me hope that in the future, this trend might continue." She said this because usually, captions are shown quite late after the actual screen image, which makes it difficult to understand what is going on in the show. 

It is called "Just on time captioning,” which is a mechanism that delays the transmission of the image by 30 seconds and inputs captions during that time. This, however, requires more manpower than usual, which is costly for TV stations. After the Games concluded. the Just on time captioning returned to normal. The woman told the interviewer, “I was disappointed because my expectations were crushed due to the situation being so short-lived."

The hobby of this woman is going to the theater. Some theater companies provide viewing support, such as lending a tablet device that displays captions and scripts to the hearing impaired. Last summer, however, she tried to watch a theater performance but could not get an understanding from the people working at the theater, so it took lots of negotiating on her part to persuade them to let her have the script ahead of time.

Public institutions are already required to provide 'reasonable accommodations' so that individuals with disabilities can receive the same services as their nondisabled peers. This requirement will extend to private businesses by the year 2024. However, this woman says, "In some situations, a reasonable accommodation is still considered 'special treatment' for people with disabilities." She continues by saying that “I don't really feel that the Tokyo Games brought about any change."

▽ More support for employment and social participation

Then, what is necessary to connect the hosting of the Tokyo Games to the realization of an inclusive society? The most common answer to this question was "Strengthening support for employment and social participation of individuals with disabilities." In addition, " The promotion of barrier-free" and "Creating opportunities for people with and without disabilities to interact" were also mentioned (Fig. 3).

A young woman in her teens (visual and hearing impaired) in Tokyo expressed the following opinion, "I think it is necessary to keep conveying the message that even if people have disabilities, they are the same as everyone else.  This can be done by continuing coverage of the media and creating opportunities for local people to interact with individuals with disabilities” A woman in her 70s (visually impaired) in Osaka Prefecture spelled out her wish: "I would like schools to have more individuals with disabilities to come as well as to increase the number of welfare classes to nurture people’s minds."

▽ After completing the questionnaire

There were many skeptical opinions about the Tokyo Paralympics being held during the corona outbreak, so it was a little surprising that 70% of the respondents gave a positive evaluation. Even though people only watched on TV screens, I think that the way athletes spoke and acted naturally, without hiding their impairments, has inspired both people with and without disabilities. On the flip side, however, it shows just how few opportunities there are for us to spend with individuals with disabilities in our daily lives.

There was also an opinion that surprised me. A man in his 60s (visually impaired) in Saitama Prefecture points out that "There is something wrong with a situation where the only way for people with disabilities to be recognized is to align themselves with the ideal image of disabled people held by able-bodied people. "

We, the media, received many requests from other individuals with disabilities. Some said, “We would like the media to report more and better understand our ongoing situation.” "People with disabilities who are making efforts are not only athletes, and their efforts are not always rewarded.” Also, "Intellectual, emotional, and the activities of individuals with developmental disabilities should be the subject of more attention in the future." With these opinions in mind, I would like to continue to report on this issue.

Figure 1

※Kyodo News Questionnaire. 763 respondence participated. The totals are not 100% accurate due to rounding off.

Figure 2

Requests and dissatisfactions of individuals with disabilities over the hosting of the Tokyo Paralympic Games.

Figure 3

What is needed to realize an inclusive society
(Unit: 1 person)

※Multiple answers. Top 5 items with the most answers out of 8 options