Project News

On 18 and 19 April, DPUB2 organised the 2nd awareness raising seminar for companies targeting human resource managers of Mongolian companies, followed on 20 and 21 April by the 1st training for human resource development of the awareness raising seminar for companies. The long-term goal of this seminar and training is the employment and retention of persons with disabilities in companies. The former seminar focused on changing the awareness of companies towards persons with disabilities and understanding the considerations offered in the workplace. The latter training was designed to encourage persons with disabilities to acquire effective awareness-raising methods for companies and conduct the seminars for companies in the future.

The lecturers throughout the four days were the three Japanese experts from Mirairo Inc (hereafter Mirairo). The company was founded in Osaka in 2009 with the mission of designing a new society by transforming disabilities (barriers) into strengths and values. Based on abundant experience raising awareness among companies and persons with disabilities in Japan, the Mirairo experts join DPUB2 for awareness-raising among Mongolian companies.

Consider solutions by classifying the causes of barriers into functional and social

Twenty-six participants from 23 companies attended the 2nd awareness raising seminar for companies, including the traditional garment production company Zoosonkheet and the leading financial company Khan Bank. First, the participants listened to a briefing from the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection on the statutory employment rates and the levy and grant system for persons with disabilities. Afterwards, they keenly attended Mirairo's lectures on the value that persons with disabilities bring to companies and the reasonable consideration in Japanese workplaces. Furthermore, practical activities were conducted in pairs where participants learnt how to interact and support persons with visual disabilities, hearing disabilities and wheelchair use. The participants earnestly walked the stairs together with their partners wearing eye masks and slowly climbed over the steps while lifting the wheels of the wheelchair, as demonstrated.

Nineteen persons with disabilities, including those with mental, hearing, physical and visual disabilities, from support organisations and NGOs participated in the 1st training for human resource development of the awareness raising seminar for companies. The participants attended a lecture by Mirairo on approaches to explaining their disability characteristics in self-introductions and the importance of engaging in awareness raising opportunities. Moreover, a group work session was conducted where participants separated their experienced barriers - functional or social -and discussed their solutions. Participants shared their experiences of, for example, "bus drivers being suspicious when I show them my disabilities certificates because I have internal disabilities that are not apparent from the appearance" and "many companies request job applicants to call, but persons with hearing impairment cannot communicate via voice call". Solutions for these problems, such as raising public awareness and establishing accessible communication opportunities via video call with sign language interpreters, were suggested, which led to active debate.

High expectations of Japanese case studies and experiences

One of the three Japanese experts from Mirairo lecturers was Mr Jun Haraguchi, blind since birth. After studying at the School for the Blind until the upper secondary level, he attended a regular university and has overcome many challenges in finding a job and working. The participants expressed that his experiences and lectures as a person with disabilities actively teaching awareness-raising training in Japan, were very informative and inspiring.

Mr Haraguchi reflected on the four days, commenting that "I was able to empathise with the participants in Mongolia, just as in Japan. At the awareness raising seminar, the participants' reactions to disability experience practices were particularly positive". He also mentioned that the participants' enthusiasm and eagerness were surprisingly high at the training for human resource development."

Mr Takumi Ishii, who joined Mirairo around the same time as Mr Haraguchi, presented the challenges he faced in communicating with Mr Haraguchi as a colleague, which impressed the HR staff, who took notes and nodded in agreement.

Mr Ishii stated concerning the Mongolian company personnel, "I clearly felt how much they wanted experiences from Japan and other countries. Our mission is to deliver information to more people in Mongolia". Furthermore, regarding persons with disabilities, he said, "For them to become instructors in the future, they need to gather enough case studies, regardless of whether it is their own or others' experiences, to derive solutions to tackle social barriers. We were able to provide such an opportunity this time".

In addition, Ms Akane Kondo, responsible for creating awareness-raising seminar materials, drew the participants' attention to her graphic recording of the group work to deepen their understanding.

She reflected on the four days, noting that "in Japan, some people are hesitant to present their opinions, but I was impressed that the participants all expressed their views." Concerning persons with disabilities, she reflected that "most of them did not see disability negatively". She expressed the hope that "For them to become a lecturer, they need to communicate in their own words, but they have a lot of potentials."

DPUB2 will continue to raise awareness among companies and train persons with disabilities to provide disability understanding training to companies in the future. Please stay tuned for further progress.

"Disability Experience" conducted in the seminar for companies

Persons with disabilities presenting their group work discussions

Persons with disabilities actively exchange opinions

Graphic recordings of group discussions

Group photo