In December 2023, the Sports Business Design Office of TOPPAN Inc.’s Information & Communication Division and the SX Business Development Department of its Living & Industry Division collaborated to hold classes on universal design (UD) for elementary school students in Tokyo’s Minato City.

The students learned about methodologies employed for UD, which aims to make things easy for anyone to use, and were able to handle product samples to check out their UD features. TOPPAN employees also gave the students advice from a UD perspective on how to design bouquets of flowers that they were going to make and present to Japan Amputee Football Association* players at a tournament held on February 17, 2024.

This initiative was in support of efforts to foster an inclusive society undertaken by the Japan Inclusive Football Federation in collaboration with local organizations in Minato City. UD is an important keyword for promoting understanding of disability and diversity, and the event was organized after TOPPAN was asked to participate and share its knowledge and know-how in the field.

The classes demonstrated that learning about UD was very effective for facilitating children’s understanding of diversity and enabled TOPPAN, which has driven efforts in the area of UD for some time, to support social contribution activities in a unique way.

*One of the seven disability football associations being strengthened and promoted by the Japan Inclusive Football Federation.