A series of rallies demanding guaranteed rights for people with disabilities was held across central Seoul on Sunday to mark the 46th Disability Day. Disability advocacy groups, including Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD), took to the streets in the rain to call for the guarantee of mobility and education rights for people with disabilities.
At 1 p.m. on Sunday, SADD held the "April 20 National Disability Rally" on two southbound lanes near the National Palace Museum in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Participants held placards reading "Democracy where people with disabilities can move as citizens" and "Enact a law guaranteeing mobility rights for the transportation-vulnerable," chanting slogans calling for mobility rights. SADD members also blocked vehicles passing through a bus stop near the museum.
The protesters also demanded the guarantee of education rights for people with disabilities, a parliamentary investigation into the disability abuse case at Saekdongwon, a disability facility in Ganghwa-gun, and the creation of public-sector jobs. They chanted slogans such as "People with disabilities should also move, receive education, and work, and live healthily in communities rather than in facilities" and "Education is life. Enact the Lifelong Education Act for People with Disabilities."
Park Jun-hyuk, head of the deinstitutionalization and independence support team at the Ieum Center for Independent Living for People with Disabilities, who attended the rally, said, "People with disabilities must leave facilities and live in communities. Problems such as the sexual violence case at Saekdongwon in Incheon are emerging in various places."
At 2 p.m., the "April 20 Joint Struggle Committee for the Abolition of Disability Discrimination," composed of 207 groups including SADD, held a rally in front of the Seosipjagak gate in Gwanghwamun, Jongno-gu. The participants planned to march to the area around Seoul City Hall, hold a cultural festival at Haechi Madang in Gwanghwamun around 7 p.m., and continue a two-day sit-in protest. At noon, the Korea Parents' Network for People with Disabilities staged an ochetuji, a full-body prostration protest, near Exits 2 and 3 of National Assembly Station in Yeongdeungpo-gu, calling for a parliamentary investigation into the Saekdongwon abuse case.
Police deployed 12 mobile units near the rally sites to control traffic and pedestrian movement and maintain order.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Disabled People's Development Institute held a commemorative ceremony at the Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, on the same day. Prime Minister Kim Min-seok and Health and Welfare Minister Jung Eun-kyeong attended the ceremony. At the event, Yoo Suk-jong, who has worked at a guide dog school for 20 years and connected about 200 visually impaired people with guide dogs, received this year's Disabled Person of the Year Award.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) also urged that fundamental rights for people with disabilities, including labor and accessibility rights, must be sufficiently guaranteed in daily life. NHRCK Chairperson Ahn Chang-ho issued a statement on Sunday, saying, "Guaranteeing the rights of people with disabilities is not about one-time attention or sympathy, but about enabling them to naturally enjoy their rights." He stressed, "Social attention and action are needed so that people with disabilities can live dignified lives without discrimination."
