Study of technical Support of Volunteer for the Visually Impaired

本研究旨在厘清视障人士义工培训存在的问题，并探讨义工的适当支援。采用听力调查法对日本42家盲文图书馆的工作人员进行调查。调查内容包括固定人数、上课条件、活动方式等。每个图书馆都有制作盲文和录音书籍的工作人员，他们工作很努力。但用户的需求超出了工作人员的承受能力，因此需要志愿者。每个图书馆的固定人数是10到30人，上课的条件是(1)限制，(2)课后注册，以及其他。志愿者的技术支持不断得到图书馆工作人员的更新，志愿者的活动水平保持在很高的水平。因此，外部支持必须主要在硬件上进行。

The purpose of this research was to clarify problems of the training of volunteer for the visually impaired and to study the appropriate support of volunteer. Hearing survey method to staffs of 42 Braille libraries in Japan was used. Contents of the survey included the fixed number, any conditions to attend a class, the way to activity and so on. Each libraries had staffs to make Braille and tape-recorded books and they worked hard. But needs of user went beyond the capacity of the staffs, so volunteer was needed. The fixed number was 10 to 30 at each library and conditions to attend a class-were (1) the limit, (2) registration after class, and others. The technical support of volunteer is always renewed by staffs of libraries and the level of activities of volunteer is maintained at very high level. So the outside support must be made mainly on hardware.