In March 2007, the municipal authority of Incheon, the Incheon Rapid Transit Corporation, and the Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation accepted a recommendation from the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) to improve mobility convenience facilities for persons with disabilities in subway stations.
The Incheon Chapter of the Korea Association for Human Rights of the Disabled with Cerebral Diseases filed a complaint with the NHRCK, arguing that " A person with disability named Kim (female) sustained a serious injury when she fell from a wheelchair lift at Shinyeonsu Station of the Incheon Subway on September 4, 2006 in her own automatic wheelchair. This was because of a failure to install proper safety devices to prevent falls on the lift installed in 1999 and to set up an elevator for persons with disabilities at the station. This constitutes discrimination against persons with disabilities." In January 2007, the Commission recommended to the chairperson of the Incheon Rapid Transit Corporation that proper compensation be provided to the victim and that safety measures be implemented including replacement of old lifts at subway stations by new lifts suitable for automatic wheelchairs and installation of safety devices to prevent falls. The Commission also made a recommendation to the mayor of Incheon that convenience facilities for the disabled including elevators be expanded at subway stations in order to keep anyone from falling from a wheelchair lift and to guarantee persons with disabilities’ right to mobility.
In response, the Incheon municipal authority and the Incheon Rapid Transit Corporation reported to the Commission that (i) they completed by the end of 2006 installation of safety devices to prevent falls, which cost KRW 330 million and those devices will be used until the existing lifts are replaced with new ones designed for automatic wheelchairs; (ii) by the end of June 2007, the new lifts will be installed, at a cost of KRW 660 million; (iii) elevators will be installed in all Incheon subway stations from 2007 to 2011, at a cost of KRW 12.8 billion; and (iv) the victim will receive compensation when a person with parental authority is found or an agreement is reached with her legal guardian (KRW 15 million in medical expenses have been paid so far).
The NHRCK determined that persons with disabilities" inaccessibility to toilets at Janghanpyeong Station and Dapshipri Station on Seoul Subway Line 5 constituted a discriminatory act against the disabled, violating their right to equality. It recommended in April 2006 that convenience facilities guaranteeing mobility of the disabled be installed. The Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation responded that new wheelchair lifts would be set up at these two stations in October 2007.
In response to the NHRCK" s recommendations to improve access and mobility rights of persons with disabilities, the agencies concerned proactively expressed their intention to take corrective action and unveiled specific plans towards that end. This demonstrates that Korean society at large increasingly understands that such convenience facilities are indispensable for the social integration of persons with disablities.
