Disabled still face discrimination

Police spray pepper spray at members of the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) at Seoul Express Bus Terminal, southern Seoul, on Disabled Persons' Day that fell on April 20. More than 300 disabled people gathered to demonstrate how difficult it is for them to simply get on a bus.
/ Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo, Chung Hyun-chae, Park Ji-won

April 20 is the Disabled Persons' Day in Korea. The day was established in 1991 to raise public awareness about people with disabilities and promote their rehabilitation.

In observance of the event last week, some 300 disabled people in wheelchairs gathered at Seoul Express Bus Terminal to protest against the difficulty it is for the disabled to perform even simple activities such as getting on a bus.

Unlike previous years, this year's event was low key because of the ferry tragedy on April 16. The Sewol ferry sank off Jindo Island, South Jeolla Province, leaving over 300 passengers either dead or missing.

Police moved in to stop the protest saying it was an illegal gathering. The police used excessive force such as pepper spray to stop the protesting disabled from getting on the buses.

The Korea Differently Abled Federation (KODAF), an association of the nation's 28 disabled people's organizations, denounced the police's use of force against the disabled and infringing on their human rights. It demanded the firing of the head of the Seocho Police Station.

A disabled person looks up at information on the bulletin board in a job fair for the disabled at the Seoul Trade Exhibition & Convention, southern Seoul, April 22. Seoul City and the Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled co-organized the fair. / Korea Times photo by Cho Young-ho

Insufficient support for the disabled

The demonstration was also triggered by the death of Song Gook-hyun, who had a speaking disability and partial paralysis on the right side of his body.

On April 13, a fire broke out in a house in Wangsimni, Seoul, where Song lived in the basement. He sustained severe burns to his face, arms and legs, mainly because he had no one to help him escape from the blaze.

He succumbed to his injuries on April 17 at a nearby hospital where he was being treated.

According to media reports, Song could barely say "Yes" or "No." Some of his voluntary caregivers explained that the late Song required assistance to move around.

Despite his condition, however, he was not eligible for the government's mobility assistance service for people with disabilities, which assigns caregivers to accompany the disabled and help them travel. Many disability rights advocates say that had Song had a caregiver, he would still be alive.

The government categorizes the disabled on a six-point scale ostensibly to "precisely understand their condition by standardizing them." The mobility assistance service is provided to only those with disability grades 1 or 2, and thus, Song, who was graded 3, could not receive the service.

A disabled person sits on a seat in an express bus at Seoul Express Bus
Terminal, southern Seoul, April 20, after getting on the bus with the
help of the driver. He was among over 300 people with disabilities calling
for the promotion of their mobility rights. / Yonhap

Since the Welfare of Persons with Disabilities Act took effect in 1989, the government has been using the system to decide how much state support each disabled person can receive.

The government grades people's disabilities on the basis of their severity, with 1 as the most severe and 6 as the least. The scale assesses some 15 types of disabilities. People with physical and mental challenges receive different welfare benefits, including pension, depending on their grade.

The disabled community and their advocates have been calling on the government to abolish the system, claiming that it discriminates against many disabled people who need government support, which leads to tragedies such as Song's death.

They say the most problematic aspect of the grading system is that it uses only medical standards, which are not the same across the different kinds of disabilities. In the case of the late Song for instance, he had a grade of 3 for his speech disorder, a grade of 5 for his brain disorder and an overall grade of 3 for his disabilities.

People with disabilities claim the government should interview them to properly assess their different conditions, instead of relying on a rigid system.

The government is aware of the mounting complaints about the system and has promised to abolish it. But the disabled say it is slow in making good on its promise.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said last month it will introduce a new system in 2016 to evaluate one's disability comprehensively and abolish the controversial grading system. However, the disabled claim it is still uncertain about whether the government will indeed abolish the system or just revise it, citing the prolonged political debates over the issue.

"That's because conducting an in-depth interview with each person costs a lot," said Nam Byung-jun of the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD), a group advocating for the rights of the disabled.

Experts point out that the biggest problem of the system is how it classifies the disabled to decide the level of support they are entitled to.

Since April 18, the SADD has been staging protests, calling on Health and Welfare Minister Moon Hyung-pyo to apologize for Song's death, which the group claims was "caused by the foul system."

Meanwhile, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has apologized for using pepper spray on the disabled in the demonstration at Seoul Express Bus Terminal on April 20.

KODAF said, "Municipal police chief Gang Sin-myeong expressed his regrets for using pepper spray against the disabled and promised to take measures to prevent the recurrence of such an incident in the future. We don't want to see such an incident happen again."

Lack of jobs for the disabled

The disabled suffer from discrimination and inequality in every sector of Korean society, and indications are that positive changes are not expected anytime soon.

For example, the employment quota system for the disabled does not provide enough job opportunities for them. The system was introduced to make it mandatory for public institutions and private businesses to hire disabled people to fill up to 3 percent of the total positions. Employers that do not meet the quota may face a penalty.

"In the United States, about 6,000 disabled people are hired as public officials in charge of the welfare of the disabled. But in Korea, only 129 disabled people work as officials for similar purposes," Ser In-whan, secretary general of the Korea Foundation for Differently Abled, told The Korea Times.

Ser said many people with disabilities in Korea have difficulty finding jobs in spite of the employment quota.

A mere 5.4 percent of the 1.21 million firms in Korea hired at least one disabled person, according to a report published by the Employment Development Institute in 2012. Disabled people only accounted for an average of 1.57 percent of total employees in these firms, well below the recommended 3 percent. Manufacturing firms hired more people than businesses in other industries including the services industry.

"People with disabilities account for 5.8 percent of the entire population. Thus, they should account for close to that same percentage of total employees," Ser said.

He called on the government to offer better training and education programs for the disabled to improve their chances of employment.

"People who have been staying at home throughout their lives have not developed work capabilities. They need to receive professional education prior to getting jobs. The country lacks training programs for the disabled."