Mixed responses to subway protest by disability advocacy group

Members of the local activist group, Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD), take subway line 5 to Yeouido, after making an official announcement calling on the finance ministry to allocate and release funds according to the recent amendment to the Act on the Promotion of Mobility for the Disabled, from Gwanghwamun station, central Seoul, Jan. 1. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon

By Lee Hae-rin

An ongoing morning subway protest by Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD), a domestic disability advocacy group, is drawing mixed reactions from the public, as some complain of the inconvenience while others stand in solidarity with the group.

According to the SADD, Wednesday, the group has been holding a daily protest at Hyehwa station on metro line 4 during the morning rush hour since Dec. 6 of last year, to call upon lawmakers and government bodies to increase and administer budgets related to disabled people's basic rights.

Last December 31, the National Assembly's plenary session passed an amendment to the Act on the Promotion of Mobility for the Disabled that allows the government to allocate and release a budget to cover the installation of low-floor buses when replacing city and village buses, as such buses are easier for those in wheelchairs to board. However, the group says that the finance ministry has not reflected the results of the amendment in its budget. The group is demanding that the ministry allocate a budget and release the funds in order to increase transportation access for the disabled.

Starting February, SADD has also been holding guerrilla-style subway protests, specifically during the morning rush hour, calling for the presidential candidates to promise to grant disabled people the rights to movement, education, labor and deinstitutionalization. The group plans to continue its guerilla protests until the candidates respond to their calls.

This particular collective action is drawing mixed responses from the public. Some passengers who depend on public transport to commute question the appropriateness of the protest.

“I would understand their point of view if the protest was about their rights to move and use transport. I just don't understand why they protest on some budget issue in the subway during morning rush hour,” a 37-year-old Seoul-based office worker, identified by his name Jeong, who was late for work due to the protest, told local media News 1, Thursday.

Previously, protests calling for improvements in transportation accessibility for disabled people were held in subways.

Seoul Metro, in response, installed elevators in 254 out of 275 metro stations and announced that it will continue to complete installation of elevators in all the remaining stations by 2024.

Meanwhile, some believe that the budget issue is inextricable from the protection of basic human rights and stand in solidarity with the SADD.

“If the disability advocacy group hadn't held this kind of protest, people and the media would not have paid this much attention to their issues,” Lee Bo-young, 32, another Seoul-based office worker told The Korea Times, Wednesday.

“Anyone could temporarily or permanently experience a disability at some point in their life, and we should take the disability issue as our own. I hope that presidential candidates and lawmakers give them the attention they deserve,” Lee said.

In response, the Hyehwa and Jongno Police Stations booked SADD's leader for allegedly violating the law on assembly and demonstration, the law on the prevention of infectious disease and for committing a general obstruction of traffic, Jan. 17, and are now conducting an investigation.

Seoul Metro filed a lawsuit against four SADD officials, including its leader, to collect damages worth 30 million won ($ 25,000), last November.