In this research project field surveys were achieved setting Taiwan, South Korea and Catalonia autonomous community in Spain as their targets. In Taiwan and South Korea various systems for guaranteeing information accessibility are in function. A politically top-down construction of the systems is a feature of them in those countries. In contrast necessary arrangements for diverse linguistic minorities are not fixed in Catalonia far from being adequately institutionalized despite the legal protection of its sign language.

In 2015, 90% of the bestselling e-books in Japan were published in accessible format. Accessibility functions are also listed, so users can find out whether a book is accessible or not before buying it. However, e-book readers still have some way to go in this area. To find out the best way to address the issue, the author organized meetings on accessibility of e-books gathering representatives of publishers and e-book stores, e-book reader developers, and persons with disabilities. The participants chose nine most required functions to ensure accessibility.
Debates about accessibility often refer to the Copy Right Act or the Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disability. When people focus on the Copy Right Act, discussions tend to perceive accessibility within the framework of Social Welfare, and the need to develop a business model for accessible publishing is rarely stressed. This tendency, although well-meaning, in fact merely reaffirms the status quo.

The digitization of print media and utilization of the Information Communication Technology infrastructure have dramatically improved the information accessibility of print-disabled students, or those with difficulty in reading print due to conditions such as visual impairment. We researched the reading accessibility of students in higher education facilities including universities, referring to the cases of both domestic public libraries and libraries aboard. From our study, it is clear that facilitating digitization is a pressing issue for libraries in higher education faculties. Further, we found that data that is not proofed is only partially effective in facilitating the digitization of print media; in addition, our study clarifies that web accessibility is a priority in formatting the contents of e-libraries.

In Japan, there are sufficient technologies and law to ensure the rights of people with print disability to read. However, many disabled people encounter difficulties when obtaining text data of books. In order to get insight into the causes of the problem, this paper addresses the issue through 1)international comparison of accessibility of books, 2)analysis of practical use of assistive technology, and 3)discussion of what kind of cooperation should exist between agencies offering publications.
Historically, the issue of making publications accessible has been treated as a problem of the disabled themselves. This tendency still persists, and in spite of the availability of law and technology, agencies offering publications do not share the information about how assistive technologies are used or maintained.
If the rights of people with print disability to read are to be ensured, there is a need for agencies to discuss and create systems which would enable provision of text information.

<p>The first author organized a series of meetings on accessibility of e-books gathering representatives of publishers and e-book stores, e-book reader developers, and persons with print disabilities. The participants discussed the aspects of electronic book readers that need to be worked on to ensure accessibility of e-books for people with print disabilities. This paper is a report of its conclusions. The participants agreed that the most required functions to ensure accessibility are (1) text-to-speech (TTS), (2) purchase of books through TTS, (3) bookshelf operation through TTS, (4) TTS reading in the order text is displayed in, (5) TTS reading by character, and (6) specification of reading start point through TTS. Also, in order to create a comprehensive system ensuring accessibility of e-books, the meeting proposed to 1) establish an accessibility policy among publishers and e-book stores, 2) request e-book stores to display accessibility functions of the e-books, and 3) appoint persons in charge of accessibility functions at publishers and e-book stores.</p>

2021年度は、文献調査に加え、インタビュー調査を実施した。2020年度に実施した文献調査の内容をまとめたリビュー論文を精査し、社会科学技術論学会に投稿し、査読を経て採録されることが決まっている（業績①）。また、2020年度に引き続き実施した文献調査の内容についてまとめたものを、2021年9月に開催された第18回障害学会大会にて報告した（業績②）。2021年度後半に入ってからは、文献調査で把握しきれない事柄についてインタビュー調査を実施するため、関係者への連絡を取る作業を進めている。応諾を得た対象者に対し、2022年3月よりインタビュー調査を実施している。その他、関連して実施している別のプロジェクト研究にて、AHEAD JAPAN 2021年度全国大会にて分科会を開催した（業績③）他、教育システム情報学会2021年度第6回研究会でも調査に関する報告を行った（業績④）。

　本研究課題に関しては、文献調査に加え、インタビュー調査を2020年8月大学のIT担当部署に実施した。また、2021年2月にアクセシビリティに親和性の高いウェブサイト制作会社代表にインタビュー調査を実施した。これらの結果を、2020年9月日本特殊教育学会第58回大会（実績①）、同年12月大学ICT推進協議会（AXIES）年次大会（実績②）、同年12月科学技術社会論学会第19回年次研究大会（実績③）にて報告した。加えて、文献調査の内容をまとめたリビュー論文の草稿をまとめた（実績④）。この草稿は、精査した後、社会科学技術論学会に投稿する予定である。