There are not many places near Seoul where Park Kyung Suk can go in a wheelchair.
“I can’t go to the theater because of the stairs. I can’t go to the convenience store or the newly opened cafe for the same reason,” he says.
“Even if you go in, the toilet is a problem. Most of the time, you can’t use it.”
But when he tries to leave the neighborhood, things go from bad to worse. According to Kyungseok, South Korea’s public transportation system is not designed for disabled people.
Kyung Suk was involved in a hang-gliding accident in 1984 that left him paralyzed at the age of 24. He has long fought for equal access to public transport. He is now the face of disability rights in South Korea. There he leads a group called Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD).
Now, the battle he has waged over the years is being played out on a subway platform in Seoul.
Over the past year, Kyung Suk and fellow activists have been protesting the morning rush hour, blocking trains and disrupting major routes.
They say they are tired of being denied access to parts of the system. They want significantly more money to secure transportation. A major request is to install elevators at all stations to allow wheelchair users access to the entire network.
On the surface, the conflict is about infrastructure and public spending, but the problem runs deeper. For many observers, it reflects Korean attitudes towards disability.
“I was run over by a commuter and followed me home. says Lee Hyun Sook.
“They say, ‘Will you stay at home? There is a huge gap between the rights of people with disabilities and the rights of people without disabilities.”
But sympathy seemed to be lacking among commuters.
“Why do they harm innocent citizens?” asked an elderly woman who missed a hospital appointment. “I think what they are doing is wrong.”
Another commuter gestured around the station without saying anything and said, “Look at all these facilities disabled people already have. I agree with the police.”
Two other young women on their way home from work agreed that it was okay to protest, but that it was unacceptable to cause trouble for others.
But Kyung Suk says he and his fellow activists won’t quit. “I understand this is a frustrating situation for commuters, but we’ve been yelling like this for over 20 years and still don’t have the same rights,” he says.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has vowed “zero tolerance” to the protests. In his Facebook post, he wrote, “The damage and inconvenience caused to the public can no longer be overlooked.”
Disabled protesters say the mayor’s words prove their point. They say they are not considered “ordinary citizens”.
One of the key issues in the negotiations is the installation of lifts at all stations and how quickly it can be done. Currently, only 19 (7%) of the city’s 275 stations do not have elevator access, according to Seoul Subway. This compares favorably with the London Underground, where 69% of stations are inaccessible. 71% in New York.
South Korea’s transportation spending has more than doubled this year, according to government figures, but there is still a wide gap between the two sides when it comes to agreeing on what an appropriate increase is.
But activists say it’s not just numbers. They say the hard-line approach taken by the authorities exposes misconceptions about disability in South Korea.
“Many people in South Korea think that people with disabilities live comfortably with welfare.Someone once told me that life is easier than the president,” he said.
She fears the protests are being used to demonize people with disabilities.
“I have seen people, especially the elderly, pat my daughter on the shoulder and ask her how much a wheelchair is. I have.”
In 2015, Yunhui founded Muui, a social venture. The underlying message is that disability should not define a person. Muui’s tagline is “Make disability sexy.”
Yunhui and Jimin create an interactive map showing accessibility across Seoul. They are so popular that they have created over 1,000 of his maps to date, including dozens of stations.
Jimin, 17, belongs to a different generation than those protesting in subway stations, but he admits they forced a conversation about disability.
“Current Korean society doesn’t see enough people with disabilities,” she says. “We have been stuck at home all our lives. Even if we really want to go, we give up. [But] We want to show the world that we exist. ”
Jimin vlogs, writes, and posts on social media about being a disabled young woman in South Korea.
“In Korea, it’s hard to be a woman, it’s hard to be disabled, it’s hard to be a minor,” says Jimin. “I just realized recently, are all three of us in the lowest class in Korea?”
“At first I felt very lonely, but now I see no reason. Doing this kind of work and getting good reactions from people makes me optimistic about the future.”
Additional reporting by Jung Wook Hong and Hoth Lee.
