Diminishing Perception of Disability by University Students Who Volunteer as Personal Assistants

ダイガクセイ　ボランティア　カイジョシャ　ニ　オケル　ショウガイ　ノ　トウメイカ

ミヤマエ, リョウヘイ

Miyamae, Ryohei

オオサカ ダイガク ミライ センリャク キコウ ダイゴ ブモン ミライ キョウセイ イノベーター ハクシ カテイ プログラム

介助者

障害受容

障害の透明化

disability studies

personal assistant

acceptance of disability

transparency of disability

This study deals with disability issues for a kyosei society. The disabled are recently being encouraged to live an independent life in the local community with care workers being indispensable in enabling them to live independently. The aim of this study is to reveal how personal assistants perceive disabilities and change their attitudes about disabilities after their experience of providing assistance. The participants were 5 university students who volunteered as helpers. Semi-structured interviews of approximately 60 minutes were conducted with each student, and the collected data was analyzed using the Grounded Theory Approach (GTA). As a result of the analysis, it was discovered that they strongly believe the thesis that “care workers must work as the hands and feet of disabled persons.” Three stages of assistance were categorized: the “struggling assistance stage,” the “smooth assistance stage” and the “automatic assistance stage.” Furthermore, in the “automatic assistance stage,” they experienced a “diminishing perception of disability,” which meant that they felt a lowering of barriers as if there were no difference between them and the disabled. Finally, I propose that this “diminishing perception of disability” is an important key for building a kyosei society in a different way from the acceptance of disability.