離れていても、ひとりじゃない｜ろう難聴児向けオンライン支援制度化へ

We may be Apart, but not Alone

Aiming for institutionalization of online after-school support services for deaf and hard of hearing children

 

”Without the online support, we would not have had the opportunity to learn.”

"It's a precious time for her and me. Nowhere else does my daughter laugh out loud like this."

 

It is said that there is only one deaf or hard of hearing child in every 1,000 children.

They scatter all over Japan and are isolated being surrounded by hearing people.

 

There are few deaf schools or after-school daycare centers specialized for the deaf and hard of hearing, a public after-school support system. Most deaf and hard of hearing children cannot go to these daycare centers because they do not have them in their neighborhood.

 

”Circle O” is an online education service for deaf and hard of hearing children we operate. It connects children and teachers online.

They deliver the opportunity for children to communicate with other children or adults who have the same disability as them or hearing adults who have skills to communicate with them properly, so that they can believe that no matter where you live, you are not alone. The peace of their mind coming from the connections and takeaways through the interactions with others promotes their growth.

 

We are now trying to create a model for a public online after-school support system for deaf and hard of hearing children and make policy proposals. Online support has not yet been recognized in the national welfare system, but we believe that making their connections online is the best solution to the isolation in society. 

 

We sincerely ask for your support to make our vision come true for the better world.

 

NPO Silent Voice

 

【payment instruction (click here)】

What We Do - The Value of connection and understanding process for Everyone

To begin with, what does it feel like to be deaf or hard of hearing...?

Being deaf or hard of hearing (HOH) is difficult for those who can hear to experience or imagine the same. Helen Keller, who is both blind and deaf, used the words of the philosopher Kant when she said,

 

Blindness cuts us off from things, but deafness cuts us off from people

 

Most deaf and HOH children, which is estimated to be 1 in 1000 children, grow up surrounded by hearing people. As a result, it is difficult for them to participate in the process of vocal conversation, and they are often informed only of conclusions.

 

The conversation includes the other person's opinion and your own opinion based on that opinion, and in the first place, it includes your own desires like “I want to play tag!".

 

It's easy to imagine that not being able to participate in conversation makes children feel "not satisfied with the conclusion" and “not having fun”.

 

In addition, being informed only the conclusion unable them to do something on their own initiative.

It is often seen amoug deaf and HOH children that they lose motivations and do whatever they are told to do.

 

We believe that ①participation in conversation, ②fun after-school time, ③a place to belong and ④a place to grow are necessary, so we established and have operated the after-school daycare service “Deaf Academy” in Osaka City since 2017.

 

Among the children in the center, some speak in sign language without speaking, some speak with their voices without using sign language. Even though they were born with almost the same hearing level, there are various children depending on their upbringing. 

 

(1) There must be a communication language and means that suits each individual.

(2) The common way for everyone to understand each other is visualization.

 

"support” or "assistance", there are many words for this, but making these arrangements in the environment has become a common culture in our place. Silent Voice also a place where both staff who can hear and staff who cannot hear working togheer. Without (1) and (2), the necessary collaboration would not be possible. We have developed a culture, "to see to understand".

 

 

Communication is the key to connecting with others. Gradually, the users expanded, and the number of users from far away also increased.

 

Why do people commute from so far away? The reason was obvious. There are no support center for deaf and HOH children in the area where they live.

 

Since we has operated Deaf Academy, we knew why there are few supports in Japan. In order to keep running a support center for deaf and HOH children, which is said to be one in every 1,000 children, it is necessary to have a sufficient number of users “within commutable distance after school", and it is impossible to operate in most areas.

 

For the same reason, those areas tend to lack support in schools and third places, which make deaf and HOH children isolated in the structure shown in the figure below

 

A place to connect beyond distances.  Online education business “Circle O".

Comments from parents of students who have used Circle O

My daughter has been trying so many different things since she started Circle O. The teacher has been a great help to me. One of the main attractions is that she has made connections with other deaf and hard of hearing children and adults.” (Moei Suzuki, 1st year junior high school student, Tokyo, Japan)

 

He used to have a hard time talking with people, but now he look forward to talking to his Circle O teacher about things that happen in his daily life and at school. (Shunsuke Usui, a first-year high school student, Mie Prefecture, Japan)

 

I began to think positively about my career path” (Rikuto Maesugi, junior high school student, Kagoshima)

 

She is shy, so at first she was a little hesitant to try sign language on my own, but once I realized it, I was smiling naturally and was happy to see her signing and talking.

 

She seemed to look forward to every session, and I could hear her laughing from her room. I have never seen my daughter laugh out loud like this anywhere else, so it's a precious time for me.

 

My son has started taking classes at Circle O, and I feel he is changing little by little. He seems to want to talk in sign language and wants to communicate and listen to things in sign language, which I appreciate. My son is still a bit shy, but I am looking forward to learning sign language with him.

 

Messages from Deaf Staff

Hiroto Onishi

Born in 1997 in Nara Prefecture, Japan.
He has a Master's degree in Deaf Education of Gallaudet University. Born into a family of hearing people, he learned Japanese Sign Language in the Deaf community and grew up with sign language as his first language. 

He joined Silent Voice because he believes that experiencing several languages and cultures and having options to choose is necessary for people to be who they are.
In April 2023, she will appear on the NHK educational program “Minna no Shiguro” (Sign Language for Everyone).

For children who are deaf or hard of hearing, it is necessary for them to have many choices in order to know who they really are. Circle O provides opportunities to meet a variety of people and values.

By having choices, you will be able to realize what does not suit you and to choose what suits you with confidence. We want deaf and hard-of-hearing children to feel the value of “not being alone” in this new era.

Eliminating regional disparities in support for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. We want to institutionalize online support for  them.

The purpose of this crowdfunding campaign is to continue the classes. Not only to continue for the children who are currently in Circle O, but also to continue and develop our activities so that online support for deaf and hard-of-hearing children will become a national support system.

 

Last year, Circle O was selected for the “Model Project for Supporting the Creation of third place for Children in Cooperation with NPOs, etc.” by Children and Families Agency, and we were able to report to the government on what kind of experiences the children were having at Circle O. At that time, we started to have a hope that after-school online support like Circle O could be in a national support sysytem and would reach more deaf and HOH children.

 

It was only a dream for us to make it the national system, and it was difficult for us to take on the challenge.

However, we knew the possibility of institutionalizing online support, and above all, we were determined to aim for “institutionalizing online support” because of the happy voices from parents and our desire to bring more smiles to the children's faces.

 

 

What we will do for Institutionalization

(1) Continuation of service

(2) Implementation of skill improvement training for teachers

(3) Development of support programs for deaf and HOH children in cooperation with universities and other specialized institutions

(4) Policy advocacy for institutionalization of online support for deaf and HOH children

(5) Publicity to increase the number of monthly donors so that Circle O can continue stably even after the croudfunding campaign funds run out.

 

First, what is important for policy advocacy is to continue to conduct classes. We will keep records of how long-term online support is helping children grow.

 

Second, we will conduct training to improve the skills of teachers so that the children who use our service will be able to take classes that are more enjoyable and more informative. Furthermore, we will create a system to continuously improve the classes, not only through the skills of the teachers, but also through the program, in cooperation with specialists and research institutions. This is also to accumulate know-how so that when online support becomes institutionalized, each office can provide a certain quality of service.

 

Finally, we plan to compile the results of these Circle O activities (what kind of online support was provided and what kind of growth the children achieved) and propose them to the government. Specifically, we would like to propose that online support be made available (with users paying 10% of the cost and the government paying 90%) when the compensation for after-school day care services is revised in FY2027.

 

Message from the Division Manager

Yuno Kusaka

Head of Circle O Division, NPO Silent Voice

Born in Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture in 1998.

She became interested in the world of deaf and HOH people when she joined a sign language club at university. As a third-generation of Hibakusha, her desire to contribute to peacebuilding coincided with her joining the NPO Silent Voice in October 2022.

Over the past four years, we have seen the children experience the joy of “I get it! I could do it!  with teachers who understand them, and as the children accumulate these experiences, I have seen many of them say, “I want to try xxx next!" "I want to try it again" with their passion.

 

I believe that they are gaining the ability to make choices based on their own values, such as because they like it or want to do it, rather than passively making life choices because of their hearing loss (e.g., not going to college, not being able to work in customer service, etc.).

I believe that if children can go out into the world and play an active role by making the most of what they like and are good at, it will lead to a more diverse society and a better society for all.

From here, CircleO will be in a period of method demonstration to see more concretely what kind of online encounters and experiences can bring about changes in children in a long-term and stable relationship with them.

 

And if online support is provided as a public welfare service in the future, children with hearing loss throughout Japan will be able to enjoy their life as they want. They do not need to follow the pass that society make for "people with hearing loss". They can choose their way by their own.

I want to see the next level of the world where the hearing, the deaf and the HOH co-exist and collaborate together in true sense.

If you think you want to see the world too, please support us, and let's work together to make this world better. 

Thank you so much your support!

Support us to continue and grow online support for deaf and HOH children!

When we first started our online education business, we had an unforgettable experience.

A child I connected with online told me, “I thought I was the only deaf person in the world."

 

His parents who can hear don't know where to go for help. There was no one in the community who have hearing loss, the school for the deaf was far away, the neighborhood school was new to accepting children with hearing loss and was groping ways to support, there were no after-school daycare senters, and neither corporate services nor public support.

 

Hearing loss itself does not impede intellectual development. However, because of hearing loss they cannnot reach the necessary growth environment.

 

If we look at regional disparities, the issue still exists largely within Japan.

I realized that it would be impossible to solve this problem within a single NPO alone.

 

For the past four years since its launch, Circle O has operated primarily on grants and user fees. However, this year we were rejected for all the grants we applied for, and we are now struggling to make ends meet on user fees alone. We have been considering ways to save every expense and sustain our operations.

 

Raising fees is one possible tackle. However, we think it is unfair that users who cannot reach the public support service have to pay 100% of their own expenses to get a support.

 

With the desire to appeal to society, we decided to raise funds through crowdfunding for one year starting in November. We are simultaneously working on a plan to increase the number of people who continue to donate monthly so that we can secure stable funding in the future.

 

We would like to realize “institutionalization of online support” together with those who support us. We want to create a society where people can connect with others and have a place to stay, no matter where they were born.

 

We may be Apart, but not Alone

 

We sincerely ask for your cooperation in spreading this campaign and support us.

 

Message from the President

Tomoya Onaka

Representative Director, NPO Silent Voice

Born in 1989 in Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture. As children of deaf adults(CODA), he learned sign language as his mother tongue. He founded Silent Voice in response to his doubts about the great changes in his family life and the small changes in society in the past 30 years. 2018 Human Power Award, Prime Minister's Incentive Award. He played the role of Kiyoshi Takahashi in the movie “The Bearded Principal”.

With the advent of the Internet, connecting with people has changed dramatically.

Although there are some things that are possible only face-to-face, there is a time for encounters that can be created only by online.

 

People who tended to be isolated and unable to participate in conversations can connect with others online and build on what they can do.

I believe that supporting them to discover themselves, to choose what they want to do next even when they are away from us is a support for them to live their lives in their own way.

 

If online support is recognized as a national support system, we believe that more business entity will operate after-school support center for the deaf and HOH using the government subsidy, rather than the current donation-based operation as we do now, and that society will change as a safety net for deaf and HOH children. Let us challenge ourselves to play a central role in this period of change.

Outline of this crowdfunding

・Goal: 10 million yen

・Type of funding: All or Nothing

・Use of funds:

　・Teachers' fees: 2,100,000 yen

　・Advisor fees for deaf and hard-of-hearing children: 750,000 yen

　・Personnel expenses for administrative staff: 4,500,000 yen

　・Others (conference and travel expenses including sign language interpretation): 650,000 yen

　・Crowdfunding fee: 2 million yen

・Period: The funds will be used to fund operations until October 2025

 

payment instruction (click here)

Notes on the Project

✔ Please note that support through this crowdfunding campaign is not tax deductible.

✔ Photos on this page have been approved by the individuals pictured or their families.

✔ Messages given as “support comments” upon completion of support may be used for PR purposes for this project.

✔ Regarding returns, please note that you cannot change from one course to another course that you have already supported after the project is completed.

✔ Please note that even if you change your account information after the project is accomplished, the delivery address and mailing address you entered at the time of your support will not be changed (unless you contact us individually, in principle, we will send your return items to the address and mailing address you entered at the time of your support).

✔ Please refer to “Naming rights, message posting, and other similar returns”  here for details on the conditions of returns related to [name posting] among the returns for this project.

✔ For questions regarding your support, please click here.

 

Project Execution Manager: Yuno Kusaka (NPO Silent Voice)
Project Implementation Completion Date: October 31, 2025