MONTHLY NEWS
June 2002

Kids Work for a Barrier-Free World Cup

In May, the month before the World Cup, kids from Kobe City's Nagata Junior High School went and used the bathrooms in train stations in and around Kobe - taking along wheelchairs and notebooks. That's because they were on a mission to find out how "barrier-free" the stations are.

"Barrier free" means that a place can be used by anyone, whether they are disabled or not. Making a train station barrier free is especially important for ensuring that disabled people can travel just like everyone else.

The 104 eighth grade kids got into groups and checked 13 stations from top to bottom, concentrating especially on how accessible they are for blind people or people who are in wheelchairs. They checked if there were elevators and special toilets for people in wheelchairs, wickets wide enough for wheelchairs to pass through, ticket machines low enough for people in wheelchairs to use, bumpy blocks on the floor to provide a path for blind people, signs in Braille, and so on. The goal was to find out if disabled people could get through the stations smoothly like people without disabilities do every day.

After trying to go through the station in a wheelchair, Risa Kanamori, 14, said, "Now I understand how difficult it is for people who cannot use their legs to get around." During her visit to the stations she checked if there were toilets for the handicapped and said, "they were really spacious." Later, she and the other students posted the results of their survey on the Access N@vi (site is Japanese only) website for everyone to see.

In addition to filling in a checklist provided by Access N@vi, one group of students posted this report about Shin-Kobe Station:
    At the place to buy tickets, "the ground was bumpy so it was difficult to move around." At the wicket, "there is always a station attendant on duty there to help." Meanwhile, the toilet "was excellent and there was a button there so you could call a station attendant if you had any trouble," but the platform "was a little narrow so it might be dangerous for a person in a wheelchair to come alone during crowded times. A station attendant is always available to help out, though."

Some games in the FIFA World Cup are being held at Kobe Wing Stadium, and this survey of train stations around the stadium was inspired by the soccer tournament. Thirteen-year-old Naoki Narita, who participated in the survey too, spoke for a lot of kids when he said: "I'm looking forward to seeing all the star players from around the world."

The information the kids posted on the site will be invaluable for disabled people, helping to enable everyone to come and enjoy the games with Naoki and the other kids in Kobe.

(Survey courtesy of Access N@vi.)

Photos: (Top) Checking the ticket-buying machines; (bottom) One of the wickets at the station. (Nagata Junior High School)