A Fact-finding Survey of Visually Impaired Persons with Difficulty in Passing the National Licensing Examination of Massage Therapist

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Purpose : To clarify the number of visually impaired persons (VIP) who have not been engaged in therapeutic works (massage, acupuncture and moxibustion) and to pursue the reasons for their unemployment, amongst those who graduated from three different types of training courses at schools for the blind ; which would provide the basic data for the future improvement of vocational education of those therapeutic works at schools for the blind.Method : To mail questionnaires to 60 schools for the blind in Japan and inquire the numbers etc. of VIP who finished training courses at those schools for the blind during 5 years (1998 to 2002); which was conducted in February of 2003. Rate of response was 85%.Result and Analysis : The total numbers of graduates in the five years period were 451 from massage training course at high school level (category A.), 350 from massage training course after high school level (category B.) and 1,367 from massage, acupuncture and moxibustion therapeutic trainin … More g course after high school level (category C.). Out of the graduates, those who were not employed in the area of massage, acupuncture and moxibustion were 170 (12%) for category C., 121 (35%) for category B., and 172 (40%) for category A. as of the date of survey, indicating the high unemployment rate amongst graduates of category A. and category B. Since the percentages of those who didn't have any license for massage therapy were 18.5% for category C., 33% for category B. and 60% for category A., it can be assumed that the low rate of acquisition of license was the major factor for the low rate of employment. In addition, for the category B. and category A., a remarkably large number of graduates (19% for category B. and 15% for category A. compared to 5% for category C.) experienced maladjustment to the working environment because of the poor social skills ; and a 60% of the above mentioned categories didn't have any working experience even if they were licensed and were still waiting at home to be employed. Less