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A Place to Know More About Ability
I had an interview with BBC. BBC features a lot of news around Tokyo 2020, but they also want to focus beyond sports and hear especially the living environment of people with disabilities in Japan. I had shared my experiences and knowledge of education, employment, physical accessibility (building, restroom etc.) as well as the social benefit.
After talking with the customer service of the musical play service provider yesterday, I spoke with a friend who is familiar with law and found the service provider is not compliant with the Act on the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities. After I messaged to the theater about this, I got a reply from them.
It has been 1 month since Sagamihara stabbings. This news shook not only Japan but also the world. After thinking “What I can do as a Japanese with disability?” , I decided to collaborate with Rooted in Rights (*) to create a clip about disability rights of continue living. Living is a basic human right. Everyone gets the right to continue living. People with disability do as well. Please check the clip out from here. You are welcome to share the clip to spread the word and defend human rights.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has 53 offices across the country, and is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. When you experience discrimination by an employer, you can contact the nearest EEOC office and file a charge (complaint) so that EEOC can investigate the discrimination and, in some cases, sue the employer if the issue cannot be resolved. EEOC Headquarters is located in Washington DC, and it was an honor to meet Peggy Mastroianni, Legal Counsel.
I have been in New York City (NYC) since last week. The main purpose of visiting NYC is to attend the 9th session of the Conference of State Parties to Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The convention is international level rules that protect rights of people with disabilities. The text was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006, and Japan signed in 2007 to agree with the convention and confirmed officially in 2014 after improved domestic policies for people with disabilities. This year in April, the Act for Eliminate Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities came into force in Japan. This is one of the improvements that Japanese government has implemented to comply with CRPD. Through 3 days conference, I have gained lots of information and things to think…and new networks!
Rooted in Rights, an advocate group of human right for people with disability, invited me to feature in their filming projects in February when I was in Washington interviewing Disability Rights Washington. I grabbed the chance and said yes right away! I am very lucky to have this opportunity to talk about the employment-related challenges people with disabilities faced in Japan. Through working with Rooted in Rights, I shared the issues in Japan that I have noticed and my vision to change that.
The film was just released yesterday. You can watch it here!
To me, it is very normal to disclose my disability on my résumé because it is very common in Japan. However, I was shocked when I heard Sarah’s perspective about what résumé should be focused. In Japanese society, disclosing disability in job interview and carrying the ID for persons with disabilities are required. I am sure some Japanese people get benefits because of the system. But because of the system, I wonder if many people have incorrect assumption toward people with disabilities’ work performance and value of résumé. How do you think?
In February, I have visited a non-profit private school, Academy for Precision Learning (APL) in Seattle. APL offers K12 (kindergarten to high school) education and has 109 students in total, including students with disabilities. The largest number of disability is autism spectrum disorder which accounts two thirds of the total students. Other diagnostic representations include intellectual disabilities, Learning Disabilities, ADD/ADHD, and Depression. The specialty of APL is fully inclusive education and individualized curriculum. From a general Japanese education perspective, people might feel “What is the meaning of putting students with with disabilities with students without disabilities in the same classroom although they cannot study the same subject at the same speed?” There are actually important values and benefits of including all students from various backgound to learn in the same environment.