While there has been tangible progress toward achieving full barrier-free access for people with physical disabilities through the installation of ramps, elevators and other pieces of infrastructure at public facilities, measures to clear obstacles for people with mental disabilities have been sorely lacking in Japan.
But that is slowly changing and civic groups have begun to pursue such projects and rewrite newspaper articles, government documents — and even manga — to better accommodate readers that have mental disabilities.
One of the organizations spearheading the movement is Yokohama-based Slow Communication, which publishes easy-to-understand news articles on its website. Every sentence is short and kanji characters are printed alongside smaller kana to assist with comprehension.