A life worthy of human dignity

By Kim Sun-ae Recently I read “Rush-hour Subway” by Park Kyoung-seok, a representative of Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination. The book taught me the history of protests for the rights of persons with disabilities. In Korea, protests for disabled people’s mobility rights began in 2001.

It was difficult for the students of the Nodeul School for the Disabled to go to school due to a lack of elevators at subway stations and low-floor buses. People with disabilities were injured or died falling from wheelchair lifts at subway stations. So the students and teachers of the school started fighting for the mobility rights of the disabled.



In 2002, a disabled person died in a fall using a wheelchair lift at Balsan Station. Park and other activists went on a hunger strike against the Seoul Metropolitan Government, calling for installing elevators at subway stations and for introducing low-floor buses that wheelchair users can take. The Seoul Metropolitan Government finally accepted the demand.

However, not all subway stations in the city have elevators yet, even after over 20 years have passed. At stations without elevators, disabled people still have to use a wheelchair lift with a risk of falling accidents. Low-floor buses are still insufficient too.

Seoul’s introduction rate of these buses is about 63 percent, although the city has the highest introduction rate of them in Korea. In Incheon, low-floor buses account for only 16 percent. If persons with disabilities cannot go to school and be educated because they are deprived of mobility rights, how can they work? The highest level of schooling of about 38 percent of the disabled is still elementary school or lower.

Although Korea has a high literacy rate, many people with disabilities did not have an opportunity to receive literacy education. As a result, about 62 percent of the country’s disabled people are economically inactive, while approximately 35 percent of the total population is economically inactive. Particularly, the labor force participation rate of disabled women is only about 24 percent, while that of disabled men is approximately 48 percent.

Article 11 of Korea’s Constitution says, “All citizens shall be equal before law.” All of us, including persons with disabilities, have a right not to be discriminated just because of difference. To eliminate discrimination against the disabled, it is necessary to increase the budget for them.

Currently, Korea’s budget for them is only one-third of the OECD average. After disabled people’s protests for mobility rights, elevators were added to subway stations and low-floor buses were adopted. These changes have benefited various people including older adults.

To guarantee mobility rights is good for the whole community including people pushing a stroller, patients and older adults. Only when persons with disabilities can move freely, can they study, work and build a meaningful relationship with other people, thereby living a life worthy of human dignity. Guaranteeing mobility rights is the starting point for guaranteeing other basic human rights.

Kim Sun-ae (blog.naver.com/everythingchanges) wrote "Old Potato, New Potato" and translated "Little Lord Fauntleroy.

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