Hyogo Prefecture has become the first prefecture in Japan to use a new guidance system for the blind and visually impaired whereby the colour of traffic lights can be detected via a smartphone.
The Iwate Prefecture city of Morioka’s general rule is to remove snow when over 10 centimeters of it has accumulated on streets, but it has been tightened to 5 centimeters on a trial basis on city roads around the prefectural Morioka School for the Blind.
Recent incidents at railway crossings in Japan involving people with disabilities have led people to ask how such incidents can be avoided.
According to the Japan Association of Visually Impaired Persons, the new coronavirus has been effecting the visually impaired one after another since last year, and multiple infections were confirmed in the fifth wave of this summer when the infection spread rapidly.
Yukio Edano, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, pictured here, stands on a ‘Tenjin’ block’ or ‘Tactile tile’ on October 16th as he makes a speech, possibly impeding access for people with visual impairments.
Members of the All Japan Council for the Visually Impaired, a group of visually impaired people, have inspected the dangers of JR Ochanomizu Station (Chiyoda Ward) and Yoyogi Station (Shibuya Ward), both of which have steps on the platform. At Ochanomizu Station, which does not have a platform door, they believe that people could fall off the platform.
The Osaka High Court on July 9 rejected the appeal of a lawsuit filed by Heisei Healthcare Academy, a school corporation in Osaka City, against the government’s refusal to allow the establishment of a new Shiatsu training facility for the visually impaired.
Visually impaired people in Japan are struggling to book COVID-19 vaccinations, as they are often unable to recognize promptly the arrival of a vaccination voucher.
In April, the app “shikAI” that supports the movement of visually impaired people about 200 meters between the exit of Tokyo Metro Higashi-Ikebukuro Station (Higashi-Ikebukuro 4) and the ward office (Minami-Ikebukuro 2) “started to provide voice route guidance.”
While the vaccination program for elderly people aged 65 and over has started in Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture, a blind man living alone in the city received an envelope containing a vaccination ticket without Braille markings, and it was revealed that he was unable to check the contents for two weeks.
Barrier Free Japan