Seminar report held by Normalization Study Group

Introduction

The Japan Toilet Association (JTA) Normalization Research Group aims to support all people particularly by focusing on toilets, which occupy a large part of our daily lives. We have been holding seminars since 1997 on the toilets as an essential part of our lives and we have been discussing how we shall regard the toilets that everyone can use with peace of the mind.

This is a report on the seminar held in May 2023.

Content

2-1. Title: A survey of the good things

2-2. The seminar style: The audience participated by the hybrid style with the venue or online.

2-3. Date and time: 20 May, 2023, 15:00-17:00 JST

2-4. Lecturer: Mr. Yasuyuki Hoshikawa, Managing Director, The Accessible Design Foundation of Japan

Mr. Hoshikawa carried out “A needs survey” with the three groups; the consumer groups and governments, the research institutes, the industrial groups and overseas related groups for the disabilities and the elderly people. Then he and his group standardized by means of the review with the three parties above in order to solve the issues that were clarified by the survey. Based on those, they are promoting activities of the awareness so that more people can easily use the daily products and services.

2-5. Participants:

18 participants at the venue (16 JTA members, 2 non-JTA members)

25 participants at the online (7 JTA members, 18 non-JTA members)

2-6. The lecture contents:

“Inconvenience surveys in daily life” for people with disabilities and the elderly, etc., were conducted based on the principles of the normalization in Japan. They investigated the issues and considered to solve them.

Mr. Hoshikawa talked at this seminar about (1) A position of “Things” in the symbiotic society, (2) The activities to develop the accessible design goods, (3) The survey on the good things, and (4) The composition of a symbiotic society and “Circumstances.”

2.6.1 The symbiotic society and “Things”

“Symbiotic society”’ will be defined as “A society where the persons with disabilities who have once been unable to fully participate in society can actively participate.” What is important here is the idea of a “Social modeling.” Furthermore, he talked “No one shall be left behind” among “People” and “Symbiotic society and Things” as a specific example of a “Social modeling.”

2.6.2 Develop products with an accessible design

The products can be categorized into three groups; “Welfare product” that can be used by the people with or without disabilities, “Common products” that partial people without disabilities can use, and “Accessible design products” that can be used by people together with or without disabilities, regardless of their height, handedness, etc. He talked about 1) The survey of the inconveniences, 2) The standardization, and 3) The steps to the goal of the products that can be used by more people.

2.6.3 The survey of the good things

“The survey of the inconvenience things” has carried outed to find from the inconvenient to the common level by surveying the products or services. As the reflection, it was turned out the difficulty to grasp the conflicting opinions because the inconvenience survey was conducted for each type of disability independently. It was difficult to come up with ideas from an exclusive perspective. Therefore, we conducted a “The survey of the good things” to solve the above issues in order to develop the accessible design products and services that can be used by as many people as possible.

2.6.4 Symbiotic society and “Circumstances”

He talked about the “Symbiotic society” and “Circumstances” about getting rid of the preconceptions, the hierarchical relationships, the indifference, being interested, and correctly understanding in the symbiotic society.