E-Japan Implementation Plan(Mar.01)
- Closing the Gap of Digital Divide
- IT school for 5.5 million by 2001
- but no action plan for disability or seniors after 2002
The report of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW), 2001, shows that 8.7% of the entire people with disabilities use PCs regularly or occasionally. Nearly 10% of people with physical disabilities or internal disabilities use computers, but only 5% of visual disabilities do. (see Table 1)
Utilization of PCs Among Type of Disabilities
| Type of Disability | Total | Use | Do not use | No Reply | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regularly | Occasionally | Seldom | Never | |||
| Total | 3,245 | 144 | 137 | 100 | 2,228 | 637 |
| (100.0) | (4.4) | (4.2) | (3.1) | (68.7) | (19.6) | |
| (8.7) | (71.7) | |||||
| Visual Dissabilities |
301 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 240 | 42 |
| (100.0) | (3.3) | (1.7) | (1.3) | (79.7) | (14.0) | |
| (5.0) | (81.1) | |||||
| Hearing/ Speaking Dissabilities |
346 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 242 | 71 |
| (100.0) | (2.9) | (3.8) | (2.9) | (69.9) | (20.5) | |
| (6.6) | (72.8) | |||||
| Physical Dissabilities | 1,749 | 86 | 77 | 55 | 1,165 | 365 |
| (100.0) | (4.9) | (4.4) | (3.1) | (66.6) | (20.9) | |
| (9.3) | (69.8) | |||||
| Internal Disabilities | 849 | 38 | 42 | 30 | 581 | 159 |
| (100.0) | (4.5) | (4.9) | (3.5) | (68.4) | (18.7) | |
| (9.4) | (72.0) | |||||
According to the 2001 edition of the research on IT utilization among different age groups by Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (MPHPT), 70% of teens access Internet via PC or cell phones, and 80% of twenties does.This number decreases as the age goes up, 15% of 60’s and 13% of 70’s. Particularly, only 1.5% of people in their sixties access Internet via cell phones. (see Diagram1).
MPHPT(Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications)ICT White Paper 2001.Feb
- the Accessibility Guideline for use of computer by the people with disabilities and elderly (MITI Notification No.362)
- Conducted by JEITA, 2000
- Accessibility Guideline for Use of Telecommunication equipment by people with disabilities (MPT Notice 515)
- Conducted by Telecommunication Access Counsel and CIAJ, 2000
- Similar Guidelines for same area
- It’s not a regulation, just a Guideline
- No accordance with 2 ministries
- Not cover Web accessibility issues
- It occurs confusion in industries and customers
Reference
Ministry of International Trade and Industry Notification No.362 Relating Information can be found in Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, "Information and Communications Policy in Japan, 2002,"
http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/Resources/AR2002/ar2002.pdf
MPT and MHW published in 1999 a guideline for the creation of Internet Web contents accessible by people with disabilities. Based on this document, a basic concept for providing administrative information through electronic means was approved through inter-ministry meetings in 2001. Following this, Web sites of administrative organizations are required to conform to the guideline.
The JIS draft, which is slated to become a JIS standard by 2003, is being prepared in accordance with the above guideline on Web content creation.
A guideline for computers is also developing in JEITA.
The guideline will be adapted as a JIS standard in the early 2004.
- Government of Japan, "e-Japan Priority Program," see for example
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/it/network/priority-all/6.html
