Interview‘Children with disabilities have right to swim’

Students pose during their survival swimming session at the National Youth Center of Korea in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. Courtesy of National Youth Center of Korea

Jeong Cheol-sang

Children with disabilities have as much right to learn to swim and enjoy the water as anyone else, and the government has a duty to make that possible, said Jeong Cheol-sang, director of the National Youth Center of Korea.

“Survival swimming is not an optional physical activity but safety education to protect life,” Jeong said in a written interview with The Korea Times. “All young people have the right to receive safety education, regardless of disability, and public institutions have a responsibility to ensure that right is realized.”

On June 26, 78 students from Cheonan Inae School, a public special school in Cheonan for students with developmental and intellectual disabilities, visited the center, operated by the state-run Korea Youth Work Agency. The students learned how to put on life jackets, float to stay alive and signal for help, gaining hands-on experience in core survival skills.

The director cautioned against labeling swimming as inherently dangerous for children with disabilities and using that as a reason to exclude them from such lessons.

“Instead of saying, ‘Swimming is dangerous for children with disabilities,’ public institutions should focus on creating environments where they can participate safely,” he said. “During our latest program, we saw students laughing freely and acting with confidence in the pool, and it reminded us again how much more often these opportunities should be provided.”

The center has run experiential programs for youth with disabilities since it opened in 2001, and its survival swimming programs grew out of that work. Momentum for a fully tailored curriculum developed in 2019, when survival swimming became mandatory for all primary school students.

The main goal is not to turn every participant into a strong swimmer, but to reduce fear and build practical skills that could save lives, Jeong said.

“What matters is not how well they swim, but whether they can protect their own lives in an emergency,” he noted. “This is what most clearly distinguishes this program from general survival swimming courses.”

One student, he recalled, initially refused to enter the water because of his fear. Watching his classmates, he eventually sat on the edge, dipped his feet into the pool and, by the end of the session, managed to float by himself.

“It was one of the most memorable moments for both the teachers and for me this season,” Jeong said.

Despite recent successes, most survival swimming opportunities for children with disabilities are still limited to one-off sessions, he noted. Jeong argued that the most urgent task is to build a sustained education system rather than relying on occasional experiences.

To do so, he said, the center, in cooperation with the government, should further refine its tailored survival swimming curriculum for youth with disabilities, secure more instructors with disability awareness and develop a standard program that institutions such as schools and local governments can use and expand nationwide.

“What children with disabilities need is not privileges, but the opportunities that should be guaranteed to everyone. We will continue to create an environment where they can learn, take on challenges and grow safely,” he said. “I would stress that safety education for them is not the responsibility of any single organization, but a shared social duty that we must all work together to fulfill.”