ICT Accessibility Trends in Japan
January, 2011
Hajime Yamada
Toyo Univ.

Statistics for older persons andpersons with disabilities

2010 Whitepaper on Persons with Disabilities
2010 Whitepaper on the Aging Society

 Between the age of 65 and 74 is 15.30million

Over 75 years of age is 13.71million––Population ratio in total is 22.7%
Predicted to rise to 25.2% by 2013 and 33.7% by 2035

 Children/persons with disabilities is 3.66 million– Population ratio is 2.9%
– The reason why the figure is low in Japan is the strict criteria
for certification as a disabled person– There are consequently many “disabled persons who are notcertified as disabled” in Japan

Consequence of the population
distribution
 Policies that treat older persons and persons

with disabilities as a single demographic, thatencompass a greater number of people, arebeing promoted in many fields in Japan E.g., establishment of JIS Standards–JIS X8341 Series “Guidelines for older persons and persons
with disabilities – Information and communications equipment,
software and services”
 Common guidelines (2004) / Information processing equipment(2004) / Web content (2004) / Telecommunications equipment(2005) / Office equipment (2006)

Although JIS standards have been
established…
 …why is the Japanese market flooded withinaccessible or unusable information andcommunications equipment/services?

– Inadequacies frequently occur even in government

office and municipal websites for which accessibility
became mandatory under the “e-Japan Strategy”– The “Basic Guidelines for Information Systems
related Government Procurement” published in 2007
only requests a sentence mentioning accessibility incall for tender

ICT Policy Task Force for a Global Era
 The Minister of Internal Affairs andCommunication (Kazuhiro Haraguchi)organized his Task Force to develop future ICTpolicies
 The Task Force inaugurated in October 2009

Minister’s thoughts: Basic approach ofTask Force ICT constitutes infrastructure for freedom ofspeech and establishment of democracy Like the sun shining equally upon all people,
with a people-centric focus, it is necessary tosecure the right to communications for allpeople Working towards the realization of such asociety, it is the goal of this task force to study
the nature of future ICT policies

Minister’s thoughts: Basic approach ofTask Force It is necessary to contribute both domesticallyand internationally to finding solutions toeconomic and social issues through theeffective utilization of ICT Keeping this approach in mind, the task force
will undertake studies on––––review of past competition policy
ways to address environmental changes in thetelecommunications market
increasing the international competitiveness of the ICT industry
contributing to solutions for global-scale issues

Study items for Study Group forGlobal-Scale Issues
 Effective utilization of ICT in various fields inorder to realize people-centric ICT policies
 Utilization of Japan’s outstanding ICT inovercoming the regional and global issues
faced by all countries throughout the world
 Studies into measures aiming for improvements
in information literacy and the promotion ofeffective ICT utilization by persons withdisabilities, from the perspective of securing
equal communications rights for all people

Assertions made by Hajime Yamada

Comprehensive policy loop to create
an inclusive “society for all”
Legislative body:
Enactment of the Public
Procurement Law

Realization of“Information society forall”

Private: Widespreadinexpensive products

Public and private:Preparation of standards

Private: Launch ofcompliant products

Public: Procurement ofcompliant productsFinal Report: Building societies thatincorporate considerations for olderpersons and persons with disabilities(December 2010)

 Information accessibility improvement: In orderto prepare an environment that allows anyone,
including older persons and person withdisabilities, easy use of ICT equipment andservices, and to secure citizens’
communications rights, information
accessibility considerations are essential and it
is important to deploy diverse measures toimprove accessibility

Development of information “barrierfree” environments (December 2010)
 In order to develop information “barrier free”

environments that can be utilized by anyone,
including older persons and persons withdisabilities, the ministry moves toward theestablishment of mandatory requirements
through further improvements in theaccessibility of public organization websites
and by understanding and evaluating thestatus of approaches to secure accessibility inpublic procurement

Headquarters for the Promotion of
Disabled Persons System Reform(Inaugurated in December 2009)

 “Regarding basic direction” (June 2010)
 Information access/communication security– For information provision to be conducted in amanner that takes disability characteristic into
consideration, the relevant ministries will work
together and, taking technological and economic
feasibility into account, will study the nature ofnecessary environment development with theparticipation of disabled persons, and conclusions
derived from these studies will be drawn during 2012

Web is the focal point of improvement Web is becoming the foundation for a variety of

information services
 Although web content is updated daily andaccessibility may be less than perfect at times,
this is a “living” structure that will be improved
through corrections while the provision ofinformation is continuously maintainedDoes JIS X8341-3:2010 “Web content”
make improvements possible?
 Technology independence of JIS X8341-3

makes design difficult and provision ofcorresponding technological information isnecessary The Web Accessibility Infrastructure Committee,
in the Info-communication Access Council,
provides technological information– Explanation of JIS X8341-3:2010– Accessibility-Supported (AS) information– Test files required when creating AS information …

Other requirements in addition totechnological information: For publicsites
With the agency head holding overall responsibility,
how basic policy should be presented within theagency?
 What a person in charge of operations, who is out of
touch with technological details, should be mindful ofwhen placing orders with vendors?
 Is it not enough to just say “Comply with JIS”?
 What are the points to keep in mind for day-to-day
operations and what actions should be taken?
Action taken for public sites
 Revision work on the Ministry of Internal Affairs

and Communication’s “Public Site forEveryone” operational model (2005 version)
has commenced (Inaugurated in September2010)
 Presentation of approaches for web
accessibility improvement that should be taken
by local governments, etc. as PDCA cycles

P: Plan, D: Do, C: Check and A: Action

“Public Site for Everyone” operationalmodel revision points – Conformance
criteria
 Explicit target conformance criteria is provided
 Websites, etc. that are already being provided– Development and publication of “Web accessibilitypolicies” by end FY2012– Conformity with JIS X 8341-3:2010 Class A by end
FY2013 (with publication of test results)– Conformity with JIS X 8341-3:2010 Class AA byend FY2014 (with publication of test results)

“Public Site for Everyone” operationalmodel revision points – Statusconfirmation and setting goals
 Understanding web accessibility policies
 Understanding current status Development of web accessibility policies
 Publication of web accessibility policies

“Public Site for Everyone” operationalmodel revision points – Approach toachieving goals
 Approach for day-to-day page

creation/updating– Quick check before publication of every page
– Gathering of user opinion

 Approach for operation– Creation and updating of guidelines– Personnel training– Quick check of the total pages periodically, e.g.

every two/three months– User evaluation

 Approach for renewal

“Public Site for Everyone” operationalmodel revision points – JIS based tests
 Test implementation
 Announcement of compliance status based on

test results

“Public Site for Everyone” operationalmodel revision points – On-going
testing and improvement
 Approach for quality

maintenance/improvement– Guideline updates– Personnel training– Periodic web accessibility tests– User evaluation

 Re-setting of goals (web accessibility policies) Periodic implementation of tests

Establishment of the Japan WebAccessibility Consortium (JWAC)
Web already constitutes infrastructure for social living
 Web is an important livelihood tool that performs a greatrole in improving the daily lives of older persons andpersons with disabilities, increasing opportunities forsocial participation and providing employment support
 Web that conform to domestic standards are still few
 Organizations and businesses, that agree on thephilosophy that web should be easy to use for all people
regardless of different standpoints, such as web
utilization, production, provision, etc. undertake activities
with the same goals
Projects undertaken by the consortium(JWAC)
Projects that maintain and improve quality levels of
web accessibility in Japan Educational projects to popularize web accessibility
 Research studies for the further improvement of webaccessibility
 Projects to build collaborative/cooperative relationships
with related organizations and bodies
 Projects that are needed for the achievement ofconsortium goals