Independent Living Promotion Office, Policy Planning Division, Department of Health and Welfare for Persons with Disabilities, Social Welfare and War Victims’ Relief Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare

The “Project to Secure Communication Support Workers and so on” is a new project being implemented by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare from FY 2022. Currently, support for people with disabilities who have obstacles to communication due to auditory, language function, voice function, visual, language loss, intellectual, developmental, higher brain function, or severe physical disabilities or illnesses (hereinafter, “people with communication disabilities and others”) is carried out in each prefecture and municipality. Such communication support is provided using methods such as sign language interpretation, summary writing, Braille transcription, writing or reading on the person’s behalf, or reading aloud, according to the nature of each disability. The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare trains instructors for people engaged in the work of communication support (hereinafter, “communication support workers”), and each prefecture and municipality train the communication support workers.

Furthermore, in order to provide support enabling people with disabilities to use ICT (information and communications technology), ICT support centres, which introduce ICT equipment and offer consultation, are being set up in prefectures, designated cities, and core cities; and projects to train and dispatch personnel who can teach people how to use ICT equipment (hereinafter, “computer volunteers”) are being carried out there. The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare also trains the instructors of computer volunteers.

However, with changes to the situation such as a personnel shortage due to the ageing of communication support workers or the progress in digital technologies in recent years, there is a pressing need to secure personnel with specialist skills from younger age groups and to promote support with ICT usage which takes into account the development of these digital technologies.

For these reasons, the project to secure communication support workers and so on is being implemented via two types of work. The “Project to Secure Communication Support Workers” (hereinafter, the “project to secure workers”) aims to secure younger communication support workers and to increase interest in communication support by collecting and disseminating information about the activities of communication support workers or about companies working to support communication, carrying out publicity and awareness-raising about the meaning and the appeal of communication support. At the same time, the “Project to Support the Use of ICT Equipment by Disabled People and Others” (hereinafter, the “ICT support project”) aims to expand opportunities to use ICT equipment, bearing in mind the evolution of digital technologies, by supporting the activities of prefectural ICT support centres and collecting information in order to grasp the actual nature of the support provided by computer volunteers, as well as examples of best practice.

The groups implementing the two projects were chosen by open recruitment: the Asahi Shimbun Company is responsible for implementation of the project to secure workers and the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities is responsible for implementation of the ICT support project.

1.  Project to Secure Communication Support Workers

Communication support workers carry out support to further communication by people with communication disabilities and others, using various methods corresponding to the type and characteristics of the disability.

However, bearing in mind the need to more strongly encourage the younger generation to enter the communication support field, given the rising average age of sign language interpreters and so on, the project to secure workers is to collect and disseminate information on the venues in which communication support workers are in fact playing an active role, and about companies and local governments which are pioneers in working to support communication, such as by employing sign language interpreters. At the same time, it is to raise the level of interest in communication support workers and to carry out effective publicity and awareness-raising activities to communicate the meaning and the appeal of this work.

2. Project to Support the Use of ICT Equipment by Disabled People and Others

Since using ICT equipment makes it possible for people with disabilities to obtain a variety of information and to participate in social activities, the ICT support centres set up by prefectural governments and others are carrying out projects which introduce or lend out equipment to assist text input or the operation of a mouse or apps to support reading and writing, provide consultation on operating methods, and train and dispatch computer volunteers.

Moreover, the Act to Promote the Preparation of Reading Environments for the Visually Impaired and Others (the Barrier-free Reading Act), which came into force in June 2019, is a law which has the aim of enabling everyone, irrespective of whether or not they have a disability, to receive the benefits of written and print culture through reading. Various initiatives are being taken forward to allow people to access the content of written materials in ways which are easy for them to use, depending on their specific disability and its characteristics.

One concrete example is the Sapie comprehensive information network for the visually impaired, which allows people with visual disabilities to use the Internet to read Braille and audio books in their own homes. The activities of the ICT support centres are important in order to enable people with disabilities to make use of ICT support such as this.

Furthermore, in the midst of dramatic progress in digital technologies, a new Digital Agency has been launched as the control tower for the construction of a digital society, and is promoting an inclusive society through the use of digital means. Enhancing support for ICT usage by people with disabilities is an urgent task in order to ensure that it does not lag behind developments in digital technologies.

For these reasons, bearing in mind the evolution of digital technologies, the ICT support project is to carry out initiatives to collect and disseminate the latest information about ICT equipment and about examples of best practice in the activities of ICT support centres or support by computer volunteers, in order to support the activities of the ICT support centres in prefectures and cities, aiming to expand opportunities for people with disabilities to use ICT equipment.