Satoshi Fukushima

Japanese deafblind researcher and accessibility expert

Satoshi Fukushima

Born| December 25, 1962

Kobe

Awards|

* Yoshikawa Eiji Cultural Award (1996)

Satoshi Fukushima (born 1962) is a Japanese researcher and advocate for people with disabilities. Blind since age nine and deaf from the age of eighteen, Fukushima was the first deafblind student to earn a degree from a Japanese university when he graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan University in 1987. Fukushima leads the Barrier-Free Laboratory, part of the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo; the research done by members of the lab's staff focuses on accessibility.

## Early life and education

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Satoshi Fukushima was born in Kobe on December 25, 1962.[1][2] Fukushima developed an eye infection when he was five months old, and lost vision in his right eye when he was three years old.[1] He lost the sight in his left eye at age nine due to sympathetic ophthalmia.[3] After becoming fully blind, he transferred from a regular school to a school for the blind affiliated with the University of Tsukuba.[4][1] His hearing decreased until he was deaf at age eighteen.[3]

Fukushima struggled to communicate, and he found the most difficult part of his deafblindness was being unable to share his thoughts with his family and friends.[3] In collaboration with his mother Reiko, he developed finger braille (yubitenji), a tactile communication method.[5][6] In finger braille, the index, middle and ring fingers are used to mimic a Braille keyboard; finger braille users or interpreters tap onto both hands of the deafblind person.[5][6]

In 1983, he passed the entrance examination for Tokyo Metropolitan University, becoming the first deafblind student to enroll in a university in Japan.[1][3] Fukushima became the first deafblind person to graduate from college in Japan in 1987.[7] He completed the doctoral course in education in March 1992 from Tokyo Metropolitan University, withdrawing due to the expiration of the time limit for earning credits.[8][1] In 2008, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo.[8]

## Research and advocacy

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From April 1992 to March 1994, Fukushima was a special researcher for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.[8][1] He became an assistant professor in the Department of Social Science and Humanities at Tokyo Metropolitan University in 1996, and later that year began working as an associate professor in the education department of Kanazawa University.[8] He remained at Kanazawa University through March 2001.[1]

He became the first deafblind person to teach at the University of Tokyo in 2001.[9] He was hired as an associate professor to create a new academic program in disabilities studies.[10] The proposal to establish the new program faced mild resistance, but the faculty voted unanimously to hire Fukushima.[10] Fukushima heads the Barrier-free Laboratory, a unit consisting primarily of researchers with disabilities who conduct studies aiming to make people and society more accessible.[11]

Fukushima is the director of the Japan Deafblind Association, an organization which provides information, training, and support to deafblind people and their families.[1] He has also served as a representative to the World Federation of the Deafblind.[1]

## Recognition

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Fukushima and his mother Reiko Fukushima won the Yoshikawa Eiji Cultural Award in 1996.[1] In 2003, Fukushima was one of twenty-nine "Asian Heroes" selected by Time Asia magazine.[12] He was honored with the Kazuo Homma Cultural Award by the Japan Braille Library in 2015.[13]

Fukushima's biographical papers are located in the archives of the Rochester Institute of Technology.[7]

## Selected publications

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* Watanabe sō no uchūbito - yubi tenji de kōshin suru hibi (Soboku Publishing, 1995) ISBN 4915513394
* Mōrōsha to shite ikite : yubitenji ni yoru komyunikēshon no fukkatsu to saisei (Tōkyō-to Chiyoda-ku : Akashi Shoten, 2011) ISBN 9784750334332
* Boku no inochi wa kotoba to tomo ni aru : 9-sai de shitsumei 18-sai de chōryoku mo ushinatta boku ga Tōdai kyōju to nari, kangaete kita koto (Tōkyō : Chichi Shuppansha, 2015) ISBN 9784800910721
* Kotoba wa hikari (Tenri-shi : Tenrikyōdōyūsha, 2016) ISBN 9784807305988

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Satoshi Fukushima, Invited Speaker". The 2nd International Conference for Universal Design in Kyoto 2006. International Association for Universal Design. 2006. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
2. ^ "Keynote Speech at the High-level International Meeting to Conclude the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons". DINF (Disability Information Resources). Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities. 2002. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
3. ^ a b c d Park, So-young (25 June 2008). "The human touch". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
4. ^ Fukushima, Satoshi (2012). "The deafblind and disability studies". In Matsui, Akihiko; Nagase, Osamu; Sheldon, Alison; Goodley, Dan; Sawada, Yasuyuki; Kawashima, Satoshi (eds.). Creating a society for all : disability and economy (PDF). Leeds: The Disability Press. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
5. ^ a b "Deafblind Awareness Week (23 - 29 June)". Deafblind Enablement. 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
6. ^ a b Bono, Mayumi; Sakaida, Rui; Makino, Ryosaku; Okada, Tomohiro; Kikuchi, Kouhei; Cibulka, Mio; Willoughby, Louisa Jane Vaughan; Iwasaki, Shimako; Fukishima, Satoshi (2018). "Tactile Japanese Sign Language and Finger Braille:: An Example of Data Collection for Minority Languages in Japan". In Calzolari, Nicoletta (ed.). Proceedings of the 2018 LREC conference. European Language Resources Association. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
7. ^ a b "Collection: Satoshi Fukushima biographical papers". RIT's Distinctive Collections. Rochester Institute of Technology. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
8. ^ a b c d "Satoshi FUKUSHIMA [Researcher profile]". RCAST. University of Tokyo. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
9. ^ "Deaf, blind academic to take post at Todai". The Japan Times. 21 February 2001. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
10. ^ a b Strom, Stephanie (7 July 2001). "Social Warming: Japan's Disabled Gain New Status". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
11. ^ "Barrier-Free Fukushima Laboratory". RCAST. University of Tokyo. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
12. ^ "Cartoon's creator hailed as a real-life Asian hero". Taipei Times. 13 June 2003. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
13. ^ "本間一夫文化賞｜日本点字図書館". Japan Braille Library. Retrieved 15 April 2022.

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