By Park Si-soo
In a cozy studio in Junggye-dong, northeastern Seoul, Cho Yoon-kyung was laboriously tapping a computer keyboard with her right forefinger, wriggling and twisting in her wheelchair.
What she was writing about was a reply to a question posted on a website she has run since 2004, offering a range of tips, counseling and advice on sex and other related issues to the disabled. Cho, 38, is suffering from a severe form of cerebral palsy.
Running the website for the past seven years, she found out that so many disabled people are ignorant and ill-prepared in having human-to-human relationships, including sex.
Named “Bright Clamor of the Disabled,” the website is the sole Korean language-only site of this kind with more than 2,700 members.
Cho said many disabled people have some “distorted and wrong idea of sex” due to long-term isolation at home or rehab centers without the opportunity to contact the outer world.
“A question raised by a mentally challenged man was about night clubs. He asked me whether it is allowed to have sex at a night club. I explained to him the nature of night clubs to get him to discard the notion of a night club as a place for sex,” Cho said.
These kinds of questions of which their presence elsewhere could stir up stormy criticism are uploaded daily on her website, she said.
“This reflects how much handicapped people are ignorant of sex, which is the basic desire of human beings regardless of health conditions,” she said. “At the same time, it shows a lack of opportunity for them to learn about sex in an appropriate manner.”
Their questions range from how to find a healthy partner for an affair to tips for safe the use of masturbation devises.
She said disabled people have the same — even stronger — interest and desire to have sex — either for fun or reproduction — as healthy people.
Yet their natural craving for sex is ignored in the real world.
“Sadly, it’s a dominant idea that people with disabilities are sexually inactive,” she said. “Even some say having sex is not a must-do for them.”
Adding to their woes is the lack of buildings friendly to the disabled.
“It’ still hard to find buildings and places where people on a wheelchair like me can freely move in and out,” she complained, calling on the government to come up with a legal solution. “They should go out to meet friends and communicate with society. This is the ideal way to learn what a sexual relationship is and experience it and other social activities. But the environment is still tough for them.”
The welfare ministry unveiled a package of welfare policies for the handicapped in May last year, one of them was transforming 88 percent of all buildings to allow them safe access by 2014.