Junichiro Sawamura
Chief of the General Affairs Section, Japan Braille Library Social Welfare Corporation

The main activities of the Japan Braille Library are the production and lending of Braille and audio books, the sale of equipment for individuals with visual impairments and the consultation support and daily life training for the acquired visually impaired. The corona disaster affected all of them.

Even now, in the third year of the corona disaster, one part of the service provided by the library still has to be restricted to prevent infection. In order to avoid congestion, we limit the number of visitors per hour by requiring advance reservations at the equipment sales counter, as it often takes time to select equipment, explain its operation, and perform repairs. The face-to-face reading service is provided in the form of an online connection between the reader and the user in two separate rooms, reducing the number of hours available per person. On the other hand, most of the book lending was originally done by mail or online distribution, so we initially set a limit, but now the original system has been restored.

In addition to user services, awareness-raising events were also affected. Before the Corona pandemic, the library held a two-day open-house event called the Japan Braille Library Open Office, in November to inform the general public about visual impairments and our business. A total of about 1,000 people participated in the event in 2019, but we are no longer able to carry out the event in the traditional form and size because of the corona disaster. Therefore, starting this year, we have decided to hold a monthly “Nitten Workshop”, a small-group hands-on course. We are trying to have participants learn about different themes such as Learning to use Braille, Walking for the visually impaired, and Usage of various Tools in each two-hour session. In August during the summer vacation season, we held a special project for elementary school students.

International cooperation projects have been most affected by the corona crisis. Since 1994, our library has been conducting the Asian Blind Libraries Cooperation Project, and since 2004, the Teruko Ikeda ICT* Scholarship Project every year. The Asian Blind Libraries Cooperation Project aims to provide instruction in the operation of computerized Braille translation and Braille printers to the staff of schools for the blind, Braille libraries, and organizations for the visually impaired in countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and to help improve local Braille textbooks and other Braille materials. In recent years, partners from the Malaysian Council for the Blind have been dispatched to the site, but it has not been implemented for two years.
ICT*: Information and Communication Technology

The Teruko Ikeda ICT Scholarship Project invites young people with visual impairments from the Asia-Pacific region to its base in Malaysia to discuss the current situation and issues in their countries and have them learn ICT, management, etc. The goal is to empower people with disabilities to become future leaders of the visually impaired in their respective countries. We had to cancel the 2020 event, but it was online last year and this year.

ICT training course (Malaysia・2018)

Bhutanese man giving a country report

Our project for the welfare of the visually impaired involves a lot of touching and close contact. Since there are about 100 employees working in the library at all times, we take great care to prevent infection and to control the spread of the infection. While ICT can be helpful in some cases as described above, face-to-face, and on-site project implementation is essential to provide meticulous services to individuals with disabilities and effective educational opportunities for the general public. We hope that there will be a quick return to a life where people can touch each other and talk to each other without hesitation or restraint.