---

I have been considering disabilities, which is one of the main themes of Global COE Program Ars Vivendi, "our creation of the world living with disabilities, diseases, aging and various kinds of differences". Although my area of specialty is philosophy and ethics, I believe we academics need to consider inter-disciplinarily in order to contribute academically to the establishment of the world where people with disabilities can live a normal life.

Direction of my research activities and that of the Ars Vivendi program are almost the same. For example, on one hand, the legal regulations for people with disabilities have been changed dramatically, and the changes can threaten the life of people with disabilities directly. On the other hand, it is not well-known that some people with severe disabilities live independently in the community, using care assistant services instead of staying at their parents' home or an institution. I would like to let the society know living conditions of people with disabilities, and moreover, to study and propose the ideal way of the society as a whole. I believe not only distinctions between academic research fields but ones between the academia and others are not very important. Rather, I have found a lot of things through talks and writings of people with disabilities and their living conditions. I would like to focus on such "voices" in order to keep considering disabilities.