“I want to vote, but there are too many steps.” This was the complaint Jae Bosun made as he attempted to climb the stairs to vote on the 24th a few days ago. The problem Bosun was had was that the voting booths were on the second floor. To those with disabilities or other… Continue Reading »
Seoul City to Extend Number of Taxis for the Physically Disadvantaged On April 10th, the City of Seoul announced its “Plan for Improvement of Call Taxis for Disabled People” which includes the input of 50 extra taxis for physically disadvantaged people, bringing up the total number of cabs to 410. In 2012, the average… Continue Reading »
South Korea’s banks are busy getting ready to meet the requirements of the updated Disability Discriminations Act that goes into effect next month. Banks decided to set up at least one wheelchair-accessible ATM machine at every local branch, and they are also improving their websites to provide better quality service to the people with disabilities…. Continue Reading »
On the 10th of January, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) released a guideline to prevent insurance companies from refusing to insure persons on the basis of disability. It was recommended that the commissioner of the financial services commission is to monitor the compliance of the guideline and the minister of the Ministry of Health… Continue Reading »
The movie “Silenced” is about the rape of children with disabilities at a school and how it was kept a secret . The movie was released in 2011 and drew more than 4.5 million viewers. After the movie gained attention across the nation the bill on sex violence was passed. After a year since the… Continue Reading »
Last year, President Lee Myung-bak reappointed Byungchul Hyun as the high commissioner of National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) even though there were a lot of objections from human rights organizations at that time. In fact, during his three-year term in office at NHRCK, he has been making thoughtless comments without considering and what… Continue Reading »
On July 6th, the government announced plans to develop support policies for people with developmental disabilities. In Korea, developmental disabilities refer to lifelong mental disabilities that develop in childhood and which inhibit intellectual and communicative skills. Examples include autism and down’s syndrome. The new policies focus on support for persons with developmental disabilities after they… Continue Reading »
Three months into the expansion of the Disability Discrimination Act 2010, some progress has been noted. Auditoriums as well as musuems and local government-run sport facilities were made accessible to the disabled from last April. Kwon So-Yeun (33) is a first grade physically disabled person with a keen interest in soccer. As a child, she had never… Continue Reading »
The 2013 Budget released by Kim Yong-Ik of the Democratic United Party revealed that the number of recipients of basic living and security payments will be decreased by 80,000 KRW. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance demanded funding appropriate for only 1.4 million people, a fall from 1.5 million eligible people this year. However, the living wages show… Continue Reading »
Photo 1: Main pages of major social networking service (SNS) websites including Me2day, Yozm, Facebook, and Twitter (clockwise from the top). Although South Korea is widely known for its strong Information Technology industry, recent reporting revealed that most South Korean websites fail to provide adequate service for people with disabilities. As a result of limited… Continue Reading »