'Provide sign language in live disaster reports'

Activists rally in front of the National Human Rights Commission building, downtown Seoul, Tuesday, to condemn the lack of sign language interpretation in recent Gangwon Province fire reports by news broadcasters. Yonhap

By Lee Suh-yoon

Activists calling for disabled people's rights rallied in front of the National Human Rights Commission building in downtown Seoul, Tuesday, calling on the country's news broadcasters to provide proper sign language interpretation ― especially in times of crisis.

Calls for more inclusive broadcasting content is not new. Such activists have filed similar complaints about the live news reports of the inter-Korean summit and PyeongChang Winter Olympics last year as well. This time, however, demands are based on real safety concerns.

Last Thursday, a large fire swept through mountains and cities located along the eastern coast of Gangwon Province. Thousands evacuated as strong winds carried the flames into the cities. Deaf members of the local community, too, got out on time but said they were prevented from a timely and planned escape due to inaccessibility to accurate and detailed reports on the spreading fire.

"According to collected testimonies, they just evacuated after seeing video footage of the fire on the TV screen," Kim Cheol-hwan, one of the organizers of Tuesday's rally, told The Korea Times. "The only thing that helped them make sense of the situation was the texts and 'suhwa' video chats with the Gangwon branch of the Korea Association of the Deaf."

Suhwa is the name of Korean sign language. It was declared an official language of equal status to Korean in 2016.

As criticism spread through social media from the disabled and activists supporting them, public broadcaster KBS started offering a sign language service from 8 a.m. on Friday. Another broadcaster, SBS, followed suit two hours later.

Im Young-su, a deaf Seoul resident who joined Tuesday's gathering, was "shocked" there was no suhwa interpretation in the live reports of the fire, according to the rally organizer's press release which was made based on an interview in sign language.

"If the fire happened in my neighborhood, the lack of information would have prevented my safe evacuation. Sign language is the mother tongue for people of the deaf community. We cannot accurately grasp information with subtitles alone," according to Im.

The rally organizer filed an anti-discrimination petition with the human rights watchdog, demanding all broadcasters hire professional suhwa interpreters for its programs. It also called on the Korea Communications Commission to make sign language provision mandatory for all disaster-related reports.

In February, the rights groups for the disabled submitted a similar appeal to the rights commission, saying it was discrimination for mainstream broadcasters to not offer suhwa interpretation in 95 percent of its televised programs, including the main evening news. They also called directly on KBS to provide suhwa for its 9 p.m. live news, but the request was turned down due to "screen-covering" issues.

Article 22 of Korea's Disabled Person's Welfare Act states the state and local governments should request broadcasters to provide suhwa translation when live-streaming "important national news."

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