行政と大学の連携による福祉サービス「新潟市障がい者ITサポートセンター」の挑戦史

抄録

To provide a comprehensive service of Information, Communication Technology (ICT)- based assistive technology to persons with disabilities in Niigata City, Niigata IT Support Center for Persons with Disabilities was established in 2008, based on collaboration between Niigata University and Niigata city government. However, a survey of the knowledge and use of the disabled for dominant ICT-based assistive products made it clear that they did not use such products well, even lacking their knowledge. The reason of such miserable situation was that specialists in medicine, well-being and education directly connected to the disabled had little knowledge of such products. Then, I have been carrying out two different activities strategically: 1) directly supporting the disabled in collaboration with specialists in other fields; and 2) giving workshops or lectures to the specialists. Consequently, we now support more than 700 persons with every sort of disability and give nearly 60 lectures annually.