Significant increase in consultations regarding disability discrimination to Nagano Prefectural Office, “facilitator of dialogue” required

Extract from The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun

November 6 2022

NAGANO – According to the Nagano Prefectural Disability Support Section, a total of 119 consultations were received from April to September at the Disability Discrimination Consultation Desk set up in accordance with the Prefectural Ordinance. The consultation service itself has been in place since 2016, when the Disability Discrimination Law came into force, but the number of consultations received in the same period in 2009 was significantly higher than the 74 received in the same period in 2009.

According to the department, around 80% of the consultations are about dissatisfaction with their lives and families. Less than 20% of the consultations were about problems that required a proactive response from the prefecture. Cases of unfair discrimination on the basis of disability and complaints that ‘reasonable consideration’ is not given to remove barriers in daily life and in the use of services are among the most common.

Four staff members from the department’s Symbiosis Promotion Section listen to both the person with a disability and the other party and propose more desirable responses to the person with a disability.