Statement at the Opening Ceremony

Regional Preparatory Meeting for the High-level Intergovernmental Meeting on the Final Review of the Implementation of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 2003-2012

Shinichiro Kadokawa
Council Member of the Japan Deafblind Accociation

14 March 2012

Good morning, everyone. My name is Shinichiro Kadokawa. I have a congenital optic atrophy and lost the most of my sight, and lost my total hearing due to scarlet fever at age 4.

I have both hearing and visual impairments, and I employ a specified tactile method using hands. When I listento the others and collect the information what is happening around me, I use Finger Braille, which is very unique and was originally born in Japan. I also use sign language, which is the common language of deaf people. In my case, I use signs tactually, not visually. It is called tactile sign language among deafblind people.

I am a Council Member of the Japan Deafblind Association. I am participating this meeting in place of Satoshi Fukushima, who is the Representative of the Asia Region of the World Federation of the Deafblind.

I am proud of this prestigious opportunity to greet you on behalf of 15 Civil Society Organizations. At the same time we appreciate your effort to prepare and host the meeting in spite of suffering from damage of the flood last year.

People with disabilities in the Asian and Pacific region account for a large part of the world population with disabilities. In 2002 Biwako Millennium Framework raised to promote their quality of life, and it was discussed to extend another decade for the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, but we are very concerned about the result it was not led to the intergovernmental adoption of ESCAP.

We are ready and willing to make our effort so that the Incheon Strategy for another new decade of disabled persons will be adapted from 2013.

By the way, I am sure you know who Helen Keller is. She became deafblind, when she was 19 moths old due to high fever. However, she met Ms.Sullivan, and it led to her advanced education, and she was probably the first deafblind person in the world who graduated University. She traveled around the world as a social political activist, and was also invited Japan three times. Helen is widely known as her contribution to the establishment of the national law, Japanese Physically Disabled Persons Welfare Act.

Deafblind persons who have the same hearing and visual impairments like Helen do exist in any time and any place, but their existence has been invisible. The reason is those dual sensory losses have made it difficult for them to speak up for themselves and make them heard in the society.

Helen successfully acquired the language, developed the higher education, and above all things she could make herself visible in the society with the dedicated support of Ms.Sullivan, especially the effort to communicate with people around Helen. The face Helen is a distinguished deafblind person shows us that in spite of severe disabilities including deafblindness we can stand up and live our active lives as a person throgh a communicational support as Ms.Sullivan supported Helen.

It is obvious that these are minimum and basic requirements, when people with disabilities live in their community, to ensure 24 hour assistant support service including caretakers and communication supporters, to state sign language and other languages as communication tools specified to their disabilities into the national law and to improve barrier-free facilities and public circumstances.

As I mentioned before, there is a number of countries in the Asian and Pacific region. That means there is a number of people with disabilities. Most of them are obliged to withdraw from the society and repeat a life of eating and sleeping. Some of them are suffering from malnutrition of food shortage due to poverty. They are waiting for your helping hands. All of us would like to request each government to ensure welfare services and improve the environment to support people with disabilities in your countries.

In the last but not the least we also would like to listen real voices of disabilities consumers and always reflect them into policy-making, because people with disabilities know disability issue best. I do hope you maintain the spirit of Nothing About Us Without Us.

Thank you very much for your attention.