Anthropological study of accessibility support in higher education

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26870402
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cultural anthropology; Sociology of education
• Research Institution: Yamaguchi University (2015-2016); Hiroshima University (2014)
• Principal Investigator: OKADA Nahoko (山本菜穂子) 山口大学, 大学教育機構, 講師 (90547142)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 高等教育 / 障害学生 / アクセシビリティ支援 / アクターネットワーク

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, I will focus on the support center for students with disabilities at Japanese universities, and explain the mechanism of accessibility support using actor network theory as a base.Based on research on human support at several universities, I treat elements related to accessibility support as actors, analyze the relation between actors, and compare the importance of different actors in each support method.
My results show that the necessity of certain support dependent on people should be reviewed, and emphasized the importance of some often overlooked actors. I also found that a more flexible support method can be formed by seeking out substitute actors to take the place of difficult-secure actors.

Free Research Field

アクセシビリティ研究、文化人類学