As a twenty-five year veteran of the disability rights movement and a wheelchair user, I have seen the passage of numerous laws related to disability rights.

These laws have dealt with including children with disabilities in schools, providing equal access to government programs and jobs, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). What is true about all these laws is that they are government-regulated. What is just as true, and more important, is the fact that all of these laws were passed and are effectively implemented because of grassroots efforts and the work of individual people. In my role as a local government ADA coordinator, I witness daily the power of individual involvement in making change and gaining equal access.

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Japan and visit the Tokyo area as part of a professional exchange program focusing on disability issues, including employment, housing and equal access. Eight professionals were selected to participate in this two-week long program. Our delegation included wheel-chair users and Blind professionals from across the United States. Together we brought decades of disability rights experience, professional and personal, to Japan. The exchange was sponsored by the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership and organized by Mobility International USA (MIUSA), a US-based national non-profit organization. MIUSA's mission is to empower people with disabilities around the world through international exchange, information, technical assistance and training, and to ensure the inclusion of people with disabilities in international exchange and development programs.

Through my work in association with MIUSA, I have had many opportunities to train with and learn from people with disabilities from all over the world. It is always intriguing to hear about the different challenges, philosophies and strategies that exist. Before participating in the exchange, I conducted a training with a Japanese delegation visiting the United States. During the training we examined the two dominant concepts of disability rights: the medical model and the rights-based model. The rights-based model asserts that people with disabilities have the same rights and privileges offered to all citizens of the country. This means that as a citizen of the country you have a right to inclusion in all that country offers to its citizens. The medical model is based on a belief that others can best understand what is best for people with disabilities, that others, including the government, will take care of and do what is best for people with disabilities. Like other disability rights advocates, I'm working to help people understand that the only way to gain full inclusion is to shift from a medical model to a rights-based model. While training with the Japanese delegation it became apparent to me that this shift is underway.

During my two weeks in Japan I had many chances to witness how the medical model is working in Japan. The Japanese "Heart Law" asks builders to consider making new construction accessible to people with disabilities. It is not a government requirement, just a statement of the belief that it is a good thing to take care of people with disabilities. The same is true in employment.

During our stay in Japan, our delegation visited job sites where people with disabilities are employed in both segregated and inclusive environments. A Japanese employment law requires that businesses hire a certain percentage of employees with disabilities, yet many businesses choose to pay a fine or create subsidiaries that segregate employees with disabilities from the general work force rather than comply with the law. At Tsubasa Kobo, a subcontract company of Nikon, we met with workers with developmental disabilities who work in a separate environment from non-disabled workers. Nikon managers explained that the workshop was opened in response to a 1998 rise in the percentage of people with disabilities companies are required to employ. In response to questions regarding opportunities for these workers to work alongside their non-disabled peers, managers explained that the environment in the main factory would not allow these workers to succeed and flourish in their jobs - an assumption that has led to separate work and educational environments for people with disabilities for decades.

During a visit to the Canon main office, we experienced a very different vision for people with disabilities in Japan. Here, managers promote integration and actively recruit qualified people with disabilities for professional positions. Our group met with three employees at Canon, one of whom has a physical disability, a second with a visual impairment and a third with a hearing impairment. It was evident from these site visits, and an additional meeting at the Tokyo Colony Ota Welfare Plant, that the absence of a national non-discrimination law makes possible very different employment outcomes for people with disabilities, depending on the discretion of the employer.

I also had an opportunity to see how the rights-based model was moving forward. On February 10, we had a rare opportunity to meet with local community groups and government officials in Ota City to discuss citizen involvement in accessibility improvements in the community.

Here, people with disabilities are helping to create a vision of an inclusive community, a community where people with disabilities are working with their government officials to insure equal access. Two factors contributing to this movement are work by individuals toward a shared vision and the presence of active community organizations in Ota City.

At our meeting, representatives from the Ota City Human Rights Network and Jucee Welfare Group shared the results of a survey they conducted of accessibility in the community - a survey they also shared with government officials, law enforcement, transportation authorities and the public at large. Currently, these groups are drafting a barrier free guide to Ota City, which they expect to publish in winter 2003. Due to these and other efforts to bring attention to accessibility needs in Ota City, local officials have committed to including people with disabilities in the design phase of new construction projects.

I saw this same commitment to change while staying with a host family in Japan. I met a group of people who came together to create and sustain a collective pre-school daycare. A couple of the families had children with disabilities. Together, they successfully lobbied their prefectural government to allow their children to stay in their neighborhood schools.

Efforts to include children with disabilities in regular schools are taking place throughout Japan. Speakers included a parent of a child with a disability who advocated for her son to attend regular schools, and an attorney who has been advocating for students with disabilities and their parents for twenty-five years, despite the fact that special, segregated education remains the norm in Japan.

As in the US, individual parents and teachers in Japan are the catalyst for creating laws that integrate children with disabilities into regular schools. A fellow participant on the exchange and veteran of the movement to mainstream students with disabilities reflected, "I spent many days listening to lawyers, teachers, parents and disability rights advocates who advocated and changed the system in the areas in which they had influence. These people did not accept the status quo and made and continue to make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities in Japan."

Over the past twenty-five years, I have learned an important lesson about grassroots efforts: The power of the individual is incredible. The power of the group is unstoppable. Professionals with disabilities have critical experience to contribute to efforts underway to bring equal rights to the estimated 500 million people with disabilities around the world. By participating in international exchange, we are helping to create a global community of people with disabilities.