2. Basics of Support for Students with Disabilities in Japanese Higher Education Institutions and Issues of Reasonable Accommodation in Medical Education / 医学教育

On April 1, 2024, Japan’s revised Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities came into effect, mandating the provision of reasonable accommodations at all higher education institutions in Japan, whether national, public, or private. In response to this legislative change, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) released ‘Report of the Study Group on Support for Students with Disabilities (Third Summary),’ which outlines the fundamental issues regarding support for students with disabilities in Japan. Furthermore, this paper will explore how to address conflicts arising from the need to clarify educational content, teaching methods, and methods for evaluating learning outcomes, alongside the need to provide reasonable accommodations that require flexible responses to individual needs. These challenges are particularly pressing in the context of medical faculties, which bear a significant social responsibility for training medical professionals. We will refer to precedents in the U.S. to inform our discussion.

A Workshop on Supporting Students with Developmental Disabilities 2023 / 医学教育

With the enactment of the amended Anti-Discrimination Act, which mandates the provision of reasonable accommodations, the urgent task for all health professional education institutions is to establish a support system for students with developmental disabilities. On the other hand, they are also required to fulfill their social accountability through quality assurance in education, such as the implementation of outcome-based education curriculum. In order to consider how to balance reasonable accommodations for students with developmental disabilities, quality assurance in education, and social accountability in undergraduate medical education, Professionalism Subcommittee held a workshop on April 22, 2023. The participants engaged in active discussions during the workshop.　Through a post-workshop survey, educational needs and challenges in supporting students with developmental disabilities were clarified, providing insights for future Subcommittee activities.