For those who are seriously disabled, services may include grants or loans of bathtubs, chamber pots, specially designed beds, and word processors, as well as the dispatch of home helpers and medical personnel for at-home examinations. To help disabled persons to be self-reliant in society, central and local governments provide economic assistance by purchasing items which they manufacture, and various types of activities have been devised to respond to disabled persons' needs in ways that facilitate their participation in society. Allowances are rated according to the extent of the disabilities. Educational facilities include schools for blind persons, schools for deaf persons, residential schools where special care is provided, and special classes within public schools. In recent years it has become more common for handicapped children to receive education together with normal children in ordinary schools.
Emphasis is given to measures aimed to prevent the development of handicaps.
This concept aims to create a society where people with handicaps can live in an ordinary way together with others. Seven-Year Normalization Strategy. By fiscal 2002, it hopes to expand the basis for handicapped persons' participation in social activities by increasing, for example, the number of welfare homes, daytime visits to kindergartens and other facilities by children with serious mental and physical disabilities, and facilities for training mentally handicapped persons to cope with daily life activities. The fundamental principle of this law is to guarantee a minimum livelihood for people who are living in poverty because of circumstances beyond their control, with the aim of helping them achieve self-reliance. This support is initiated on the basis of applications made by the person needing the assistance or by that person's legal guardian or a relative living at the same address.