Tsukuba College of Technology is a unique national three-year college for those with hearing and visual impairments. The college emphasizes education and research of vocational technology for sensory disabled people cultivating their cultural and professional competence. Furthermore, we promote their socio-economic independence and enhance the level of social welfare.
The college has the mission to develop appropriate and up-to-date methods of education for the disabled in utilizing new technology and to contribute to the improvement of their living and vocational environment.
For more than fifteen years since establishment, our academic research and educational efforts to enlighten the understanding of the disabled have been highly evaluated internationally, as well as in Japan. We continue to develop as a distinguished higher educational institute for the hearing and visually impaired people.
President NAOKI OHNUMA
Tsukuba College of Technology is a national college which aims to offer the opportunity of post-secondary education specifically to disabled people. Moreover, it is expected to produce high-level specialists in several fields. The Division for the Visually Impaired consists of the following three departments: Department of Acupuncture /Moxibustion, which is traditional occupation for the visually impaired people in Japan, Department of Physical Therapy, which is also a popular profession among them and Department of Information Science, which is a rather new and challenging course for visually impaired people. We expect our students should be 'well-cultivated' and contribute to the development of our college. 'Well-cultivated' students mean the students who can think independently, can judge the situation correctly and make up appropriate strategy time to time, and can put ideas into action effectively. More importantly, they should know the value of their conducts from the world-standard point of view. There is abundant supply of information in this world, which is often called 'Information Society'. However, it is not easy to know which is correct or wrong because people have different senses of value. It is apparent young people have to develop their own skills to survive in the information society. People with visual impairment are less privileged in this sense but they can overcome with certain knowledge, skills and power. We support them by excellent human power as well as up-to date technology. You are all welcome if you want to start again and to be active in the society.
Dean of Division for the Visually Impaired
Yoshitoshi ICHIMAN
Computer Technology has made it possible that visually impaired people can read and write print materials and work with documents. In other words skills of computer use are essential for our students in each course. They start to learn basic skills of computers and develop their ability to build up their own environment using assistive technology. We can often see even the students who had never touched the keyboard before have learned how to take a note by their own note PC in a few months. Totally blind students use screen reader software and partially blind students use screen magnification programs. They get information from the Internet and write their reports. These experiences are highly evaluated by the companies where our students are working now.
Developing communication skills is essential for people who are visually impaired to be active participants in the society. As mentioned above, new ways of communication such as e-mail and Web system enhance their ability but we think what is the most important is 'Daily communication skill', which is useful for creating good relationship to others. Teaching staff try to communicate with the students as much as possible and in the 'Office Hour' the doors of their rooms are open to them. It is not easy for visually impaired people to be independent, so they have to tell what they can do and what they need to do their job. Training in the classrooms is not enough. We offer various opportunities for development of communication skills to the students during the three years.
Our final goal is independence of our students by living as well as profession. In addition to basic living skills, students are required high-level of professional knowledge and skills. Unfortunately even the people with good knowledge and skills have little chance to get a suitable job. Employers are keen to find excellent workers and matching their needs is sometimes complicate. Our career service section provides students with information such as employment conditions, working conditions, detailed job descriptions and required qualifications. Based on individual counseling, they give the students appropriate instruction and support. Furthermore, they always contact with the people who graduated from our college and their companies in order to continue to support both of them. Giving visually impaired individuals equal opportunity for employment is one of our important missions. Therefore, we try to appeal that our students are competent enough to be competitive in the job markets.