We all think, “What is a disability?”
On Monday, February 6 and Wednesday, March 8, Disability Equality Training (DET) was held with a total of 40 participants working at JICA Ichigaya Building. Together with facilitators from the Disability Equality Training Forum (DET Forum), a non-profit organization, the participants asked questions such as “What is a disability? Where do disabilities exist? The participants were asked to think about the questions “What is a disability? The participants learned not only about the functional disabilities of individuals with disabilities, such as blindness and inability to walk, but also about the existence of restrictions and social exclusion, such as being denied boarding a train or entering a store, being discriminated against in employment, and not being able to attend the same schools as others.
What will you do today to eliminate obstacles?
After learning about disabilities in society, the workshop focused on what they could do to eliminate them in their workplaces and jobs. The participants, who are in charge of different tasks such as Ogata Research Institute, Global Plaza, reception, and J’s café, all located in JICA Ichigaya Building, became aware of obstacles in their own workplaces and tasks that they had not been aware of before and discussed concrete actions to resolve them.
One participant commented, “Having an actual person with a disability as a facilitator changed my awareness of disability. The training was not a simulated experience of functional disability, but rather, the training was conducted from the perspective of what society, the environment, and able-bodied people can do to solve structural discrimination and exclusion caused by organizations and systems, and I was able to view the training as my own personal responsibility. The participants were motivated to take action based on the insights they gained from the training.
JICA will continue its efforts to create an inclusive society that does not exclude people with disabilities and leaves no one behind.
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