Katsuko Yamamoto
Teacher at a special-needs school, author, essayist : Japan
Born in Kanazawa City in 1957. She was graduated from Faculty of Science, Toyama University. After teaching at elementary schools, she is currently teaching at the special-needs school cum an author and essayist.
Movies "1/4 Miracle" and "Promise of Universe" featuring Ms. Yamamoto have been screened in more than 600 sites in the country and 25 in overseas on non-profit basis from 2007.
A diary written about the days visiting one of her close friends at a hospital who suffered from brain-stem hemorrhage has gained a reputation. Having learned there are so many ways to communicate with other people who are hard to communicate due to illness or disabilities, she has been operating aggressively to spread the methods around.
Publication "Kii-chan" was one of the assigned reading books for junior high-school students in summer in 2000 and the book appeared in school textbooks in Japanese language in 2002 - 2004. Since 2006, her book has been selected as one of side readers in ethics in junior high schools. Many other books in Japanese have been published.
IAUD official page