Grad school will cater to disabled

TSUKUBA, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo) Japan's first graduate school for students with visual or aural disabilities will open next April at the state-run Tsukuba University of Technology in Ibaraki Prefecture, it said Friday.

It will be the world's first graduate school for visually impaired students and the third for hearing-impaired ones, following such schools as Gallaudet University in the United States, according to the university.

"We would like to accept foreign students and expand our capacity in the future," said Yoshinori Murakami, university president. "Also, we would like to open Ph.D. courses eventually."

Master's degrees will be offered in two faculties — industrial technology for visually challenged students and health science courses for hearing-impaired students that will focus on acupuncture and moxibustion as well as physical therapy.

The university is planning to provide various learning aids, including sign language, Braille and magnified letters to accommodate the students' needs.