In January of this year, a local group for visually impaired people submitted a request to Tobu Railway to strengthen measures to prevent falls after an accident in which a visually impaired man fell and died at a station in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo.
The new Tokaido Shinkansen, which will run from the 20th, will have four more seats for wheelchairs, for a total of six seats.
Currently, electric kickboards are classified as motorized bicycles, which can only be ridden on roads and require a driver’s license.
An advocacy group that supports disabled residents in Chiba, east of Tokyo, says the lack of smart cards with discount fares for disabled residents and carers on any lines in the Kanto region adds significantly to travel time.
“I think that if you use a method like exercising your strength, it will not be understood by people with disabilities, but it will not lead to repulsion. Is it really good for other people with disabilities?”
In a recent blog post entitled ‘Wheelchairs were denied boarding at JR’, the disability activist and writer, Natsuko Izena describes not being allowed to board a JR station, something that she describes as “a common occurrence for wheelchair users in this day and age.”
The voluntary organization “Minami Shinshu Outing Team” With “” created by the Achi Hirugami Tourist Bureau in Chisato Achi Village and “Kafune Nursing” in the north of Iida City rents and assists wheelchairs equipped with the towing assistance device “JINRIKI”.
The City of Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, has produced a CD teaching material to help the visually impaired learn about the platform fences installed at JR Akashi Station and other stations. The CD explains the procedure of walking through the station with a visually impaired person and getting on a train. It also includes an interview with a JR West employee and his impressions of the platform fence.
A study session was held at JR Kanazawa Station on the 16th to verify issues so that visually impaired people can use ticket vending machines smoothly. Yoshifumi Yoneshima (68), the chairman of the Ishikawa Association for the Visually Impaired, and helpers experienced purchasing a ticket using a new ticket vending machine installed on the premises in December last year.
The so-called “digital disability certificate”, which is equipped with information on the disability certificate on smartphones, became available for use on JR and private railways nationwide from the 13th.
