A Happy New Year!
I heartily wish this year will bring the better situation to the people who suffered in the Tohoku District and happiness to all in the world!
I took part in the 10km Race Day Walk of Honolulu Marathon on Dec. 11, 2011 as a supporter of a lady in a wheelchair. Both of us participated in the same race in 2010 as well. Rieko, who is in a wheelchair, is very independent and she usually manipulates her own electric wheelchair whenever and wherever she wants to go, but in this race she wants to use a manually operated wheelchair with her arms, so she needs a supporter to push, when she gets tired.
In 2010, unfortunately the wheel of her chair went flat at the 3km point, so I pushed her chair for the remaining 7km. As she always has a pain in her hip joint, I had to push very slowly and carefully, and it took a long time to get to the finish line, but this time her condition was fine and the wheelchair didn't get a puncture, and above all two voluntary students from Hawaii University sometimes helped us. It was so easy for me just walking with a wheelchair! We could shortened the time by one hour and a half. Rieko and me, of course, were very happy after we passed the finish line.
I am a "travel supporter" to support the physically disabled people who want to travel; sometimes attending people in wheelchairs or those with visual impairment. Recently "barrier-free" travel (accessibility of travel) in Japan has been improved, and many people with disabilities can move around on tours and enjoy their travels.
I have been working as an English-speaking tour guide for more than twenty years and have found that elderly guests sometimes cannot climb up the stairs of temples and shrines. As you know many temples and shrines are built on the hills and mountains in Japan, and there are not always slopes to get to the main hall. My guests come to Japan to see the buildings with beautiful sculptures and designs of the temples and shrines. It is unfair for them not to see those things. And I have joined a study group to study how we can attain barrier-free travel for the elderly and the disabled. I sometimes join the actual trips together with those people.
Now I am planning to write on this subject "Barrier-free Travel" in my blog. Please give me some comments, which will be a great help for me to improve the way for supporting the disabled. Thank you very much for your cooperation in advance.
That's great! I think you do a great thing by helping people with disabilities and I hope you can improve the travel conditions for them. I hope too that the people of Tohoku are getting all the support they need to get back on their feet. (jennie)
No comments:
Post a Comment