Communication Barrier-Free Project
Concept: Providing "information" required to bring "the best possible medicine" to all patients
For communication between patients with hearing/visual impairments and medical personnel
"Supply the best possible medicine to protect the health and wellbeing of the patients we serve"
This is the Company Policy of Shionogi. Then, what is the “best possible medicine”? In general, many people might think that it is a drug that causes fewer adverse reactions and has a higher therapeutic effect. In order to ensure that patients can take medicine safely while maximizing the therapeutic effect and minimizing adverse reactions, useful information is provided to patients through various means, including medication guidance by medical professionals, and accompanying documents or descriptions on packages of non-prescription drugs.
However, some people have difficulty getting the information needed to take medication appropriately because of their disability. To remove such barriers, Shionogi is working on improving the way it transmits information. These efforts will help achieve the target specified in our medium-term business plan, STS2030 (FY2020 to 2030): Delivering value by providing healthcare as a service (Healthcare as a Service: HaaS).
What is Communication Barrier-Free? (8 min. 29 sec. video with English captions)
Project activities
What activities do you implement in the Communication Barrier-Free Project?
For Medical Personnel and Patients
Under the slogan "Let's remove barriers to taking medication appropriately!" we are conducting educational activities to explain the characteristics of disabilities.
- Offering disability awareness seminars for medical personnel, provided by a hearing impaired person
- Distributing easy-to-understand pamphlets explaining the characteristics of disabilities
- Distributing easy-to-understand posters which explain how to take medicine appropriately, with lots of cartoon-like illustrations
- Creating a video explaining the patients’ problems
Awareness seminar
Pamphlets explaining the characteristics of disabilities
Poster explaining how to take medications appropriately
Cartoon that explains how to take medications appropriately
April 2020: The package of the antipyretic analgesic Sedes® series (External website)
Scenes from the video shoot
Poster explaining the procedure of the gastric barium test
Communication tips for the general public to overcome communication barriers with hearing impaired persons
For Our Employees
This project started at a study meeting participated in by volunteers, many of whom were hearing-impaired employees.
Since the project officially started in October 2015, many unimpaired employees have also joined in the project to provide internal educational activities and seminars to let our employees know about the characteristics of hearing impairment and to raise their awareness. Furthermore, we have made efforts to create a work environment that is friendly to employees with disabilities, including introducing the UDTalk®(External website) App to support communication and visualize conversation.
Guarantee of internal information provision
Currently, about 20 hearing-impaired employees are working at Shionogi. With a guarantee of appropriate information provision, we aim to enable all employees to participate in internal meetings on their own initiative, regardless of whether or not they have a disability. As one of the measures, we introduced "UDTalk® (External website)," an app that recognizes voices and converts them to text.
In addition, by creating a corporate culture where appropriate information provision is guaranteed for every employee participating in training, lectures, and seminars, we aim to enable both healthy and disabled employees to work in the same workplace with a sense of purpose and motivation, thus enabling them to fully demonstrate their abilities.
For Everyone in Society
Consideration for visitors
An "ear mark"[*] is displayed at the reception desk of the Shionogi headquarters to inform the visitor that the receptionists are happy to provide special services, such as communicating in writing as required. Shionogi makes efforts to create a service desk that can be used, without any hesitation, by anyone, including people with disabilities and foreigners.
* The "ear mark" is a mark established by the All Japan Association of Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People (Zennancho) (External website) to indicate that the person has a hearing impairment. The message is written in English as well.
An assistance dog sticker is displayed at the front entrance of the Shionogi headquarters building. (Assistance dogs refer to specially trained dogs such as guide dogs, service dogs, and hearing dogs.) By displaying an assistance dog sticker, Shionogi announces its willingness to welcome users of assistance dogs, thereby aiming to create a society where people with disabilities can live and work in the same way as able-bodied people.
* The Act for Assistance Dogs for Persons with Disabilities, (Link to the website of Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare), stipulates that, in principle, any individual accompanied by an assistance dog should be allowed to enter facilities used by an unspecified number of people, such as government offices, hospitals, public transportation facilities, and restaurants. Meanwhile, the Act also stipulates that a private company with 50 or more employees should not refuse the use of an assistance dog by an employee with disabilities.
About Links
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Project Logo
Logotype:
Koga Hirano, a Japanese book designer, has designed the project’s logotype for us. This unique and creative logotype represents what the project aims for: a diverse society where everyone can play an active role.
Logo:
The logo is designed using letters C, B, and F, the capital letters of each word in the project’s name, Communication Barrier-Free. It also expresses the theme of the project, "Turn awareness into action, and change minus to plus." There is a plus (+) symbol between letters C and B. It was created through cooperation between the Shionogi Business Partner Design Division and project members. (Registered trademark)