Today, I come to SIGHT WORLD 2024, which is being held in Tokyo. This is an annual festival-like event that takes place between November 1st and 3rd, where symposiums, exhibitions, workshops and other events related to visual impairments are held every day.
This is my first time participating…or rather, I only found out about this kind of event quite recently. My main purpose is to meet a senior colleague who has been working on “introducing Morse code to the deaf-blind” for over 30 years and exchange information with him.
I met him at the entrance to the venue and we talked about our activities very much. Of course, he has been working on this for many years, so I learned a lot from him, but our approaches are slightly different, so he seemed to be interested in my approach as a beginner.
In any case, we both feel that “Morse code is a universal design communication tool that can be used by deaf-blind people,” and we decided to work together to think about how to get people to use it in the future.
Next year’s National Deaf-Blind Convention will be held in Utsunomiya city, and we may be able to cooperate in exhibiting an introductory experience of “tactile Morse code communication.”
After the conversation, I looked around the exhibition. There were many latest communication devices on display and demonstrations, and I felt the benefits of the evolution of ICT technology. However, they all seem to be quite expensive.
My small device, which can be made for just 1,000 yen, should be able to connect the world of Morse communication, which is undoubtedly a bit strange compared to the rest of the world, with the deaf-blind without any distinction. I felt that introducing this possibility is actually no different from the goals of the many people and companies gathered here, and is not something that competes with them.