I interviewed a blind person, Clement Chou on February 28.
He was born blind with Norrie’s disease. Before the pandemic, he worked at Japanese Language School Agents in Canada. Also, he is a member of the NPO organization, Blind Beginnings, which support blind people and their family. I asked him about the support for blind people.
In this interview, what he was most insistent on was that the most important support is the human mind. He said Japan has a lot of support for blind people rather than Canada and America. Before hearing his story, I thought it is good for blind people. But he said it is not always good for them because stable support makes them a conservative person. In these country, like Japan, he said he feel like he is being treated like a different person, a visually impaired person. The blind people who live in the country where has not enough support try to act by themselves and try to find the suitable way. So they can be independent.
Also, he spoke the experiences in Japan. When he asked a station worker the place of ticket gate in Japanese station, he had to wait for twenty minutes, even though the ticket gate was right in front of him. In contrast, he was in Canada, when he is at the station, the station attendant calls out to him. It is a difference between Japan and Canada. It means Japan has high quality system support, but the support by people is lower than Canada.
Fron this interview, I could think about blind people by new aspect. I would like to tell people that your support is the most important in my presentation.
Mei Igarashi