Corona woes of "blind people" who cannot live without touching each other June 3 17:16

"Touching is like breathing. Communication is like living." This is an e-mail message sent by a woman who has a "blind deaf" family member with impaired eyes and ears. Nowadays, as people are required to avoid sealing, crowding, and close contact as a new coronavirus infection prevention, there are some people who could end up in their lives if their contact with others is cut off.
(Network news department reporter Yoshiyuki Gun)

I can't see, I can't hear

A park in Takatsu Ward, Kawasaki City in late May. I was able to meet there a couple of parents.

Chikako Imoto and her daughter Miki (13). Miki, who is in the second grade of junior high school, is a blind person who is born blind and deaf. One of them is the world-famous Helen Keller, who is called the “miracle man”.

Miki walks at a slow pace step by step while feeling the breeze of early summer.

A gentle smile spills.

“It's been a long time since I took a walk like this.”

Mother Chikako squinted at her daughter and told us about the serious impact of the new coronavirus on her life.

Since the end of February, Miki has been living in a family of four parents and her sister, refraining from going out.

Living daily at home with no contact with the outside world. What does that mean for blind people like Miki?

The biggest influence is "sense of isolation".

Because they are blind and deaf, they cannot get information directly from TV/radio, newspapers, or the Internet.

Instead, Miki touches the other person's hand and receives various signs from it to communicate.

For example, a "done" sign that something has been done and completed. Chikako takes Miki's hand and applies it to the left and right shoulders once.

Since “contact” is indispensable for communication, it is very difficult for people who are deaf and blind to live without touching the other person.

According to her mother, Chikako, Miki couldn't easily understand the situation changed by the virus, and she couldn't even leave her free time to go out, so she was getting more stressed day by day.

Mother Chikako
"I feel like I was sleeping at night and suddenly burst into tears, or I felt like I was exploding because of stress inside me."

Every day, I was sensitively feeling the state of my daughter, who was mentally unstable because she had peeled her skin too hard and suddenly started crying.

Also, the stress was growing in my family. Chikako said, “I was new to touching the teaching materials, and I was doing it through trial and error, so there was some pressure on it,” said Chikako, who was responsible for all day-to-day study support.

In addition, he appealed:

Mother, Chikako
“Because people with deafblindness cannot live without humans, all support will be cut off if the virus makes it “not possible to interact with people.” I want you to know it and connect it to the necessary support.''

Serious voice from all over the place

To find out more about the current situation of people with deafness, I spoke to a social welfare corporation, the National Association of the Deafblind, in Tokyo.

“We need information related to the new coronavirus, but that information has not reached the deafblind,”

said Masatomo Yamashita, Executive Director. According to Mr. Yamashita, there are about 14,000 people with deafblind people all over the country, and the association and their family members consult with the association.

Most noticeable is the acquisition of information.

The association said, "Because I cannot talk without touching people or people nearby, I cannot go out freely and it is very difficult." It means that there is a serious voice saying "I can not receive it".

National Deafblind Association Secretary-General Yamashita
" Being blocked from information not only causes great stress to the deafblind but also stress to the family. I would like you to consider ways to ensure that essential information is properly delivered. Also, if the interpreters and caretakers do not come to the house, they will not be able to do anything if they are unable to leave the house by themselves. I want you to think about rewarding people as well.''

"I'm losing my senses"

How do experts see this situation? I interviewed Professor Satoshi Fukushima of the University of Tokyo, who is blind and inaudible by himself, through an interpreter.

An interpreter puts his hand on the back of Prof. Fukushima's hand and uses the "finger braille" method, in which the characters are typed like the keys of a braille typewriter.

Professor Fukushima said, “If you put on a mask, you will not smell much, and the last important feeling left is “tactile = touching”, but you are told to avoid touching people, and the sense is gradually deprived. The new coronavirus is extremely harsh for people."

In addition, "I would like to give priority to the disinfectant solution to the deafblind people who live by touching more than anyone else, and not only the person who has various hardships, but also the family should be properly supported. It is important not only to support each individual supporter and interpreter, but it is also important to financially support the core NPOs and other support organizations."

How do countries think

What do the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare think about these problems?

A person in charge of the Independence Support Promotion Office, which is responsible for supporting the local lives of people with disabilities, said, “At the present time, tools and techniques to convey information to the deafblind people have not been developed. You cannot force a dispatch."

However, he said he felt the need to improve the situation surrounding people with deafblindness, and said, "In the future, I would like to work on improving information security by securing a budget, including improving the treatment of interpreting assistants." I am.

A "new lifestyle" that no one will leak

Nowadays, switching to a new lifestyle is called for as a preventive measure against the new coronavirus.

Avoid three secrets, hold online classes and remote meetings, and keep your distance from people as close as 2 meters. I also accepted the call as a matter of course.

But for the deaf and blind people, that is not the norm. In the e-mail of the woman I introduced at the beginning, there was a message like this.

"I think it's not loneliness to be invisible or inaudible, but lonely to be cut off from the process of connecting with people."

Safety nets for people with visual and ear disabilities 1 People must not leak, and that approach is one of the "new lifestyles". I can't help thinking so.

Network news department reporter
KoriYoshiyuki
2010 it joined Maebashi broadcasting stations, network news department through the Kushirohosokyoku. Currently in charge of online news and survey reports.