PARALYMPICS PARIS 2024: SPECIAL NOTE ON SADD (SOLIDARITY AGAINST DISCRIMINATION AGAINST DISABILITY)
By SHARON STERN and EUN BYOUL OH
Disability in South Korea is a very complicated topic. South Korea has, until recently, had a classification system for disabilities, completely dependent on medical evaluation and as a result, over-simplifying how social response is mandated, including exclusion of students in schools and access to education as well as access to employment. The right to mobility as a basic human right, stated in documents such as the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has encountered cultural attitudinal challenges and therefore political challenges in South Korea.
Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) is a disability rights organization in South Korea, started by Park Kyoung-seok in 2007. Park Kyoung-seok is very well known in South Korea and SADD in 2021 held a large protest in Seoul, jamming access to the subways because subway workers need to install and uninstall ramps in order for wheelchair users cross the gap between the platform and the train at those few stations that even have elevator access to the platforms. Many people in Seoul were angry over the delays that were caused and continue to happen as protests continue. Even though some laws have begun to change as a result of protests, no funding has been budgeted to back them up and public education plus police training have not been added to truly change the lives of disabled people in South Korea.
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By JESSIE BARKER
Harassed by South Korean authorities for supporting people with disabilities
While the Paris 2024 Paralympics were launched, we caught up with Kyung Seok Park, a South Korean human rights activist harassed by authorities in his country.
His battle: the lack of accessibility in shared transportation.
His strategy: disruptive actions in the Seoul subway for more than 20 years.
Kyung Seok Park’s fight is legitimate. However he is heavily pursued by the authorities and risking up to €430,000 in fines. He also, on several occasions, suffered violence from law enforcement.
Through these actions, Kyung Seok Park wants to show that life as a person with a disability is not only difficult but also dangerous in his home country.
Between 1999 and 2015, at least 16 people were killed or injured on Seoul’s subway due to equipment failure.
Despite the violence he has faced, Kyung Seok Park continues to fight for the rights of people with disabilities.
SADD made a voyage via Oslo and Berlin to Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games. They wanted to draw attention to their plight and expose the oppression and discrimination they have faced. Paris is an ironic place for SADD to protest because the metro system in Paris is extremely old and had many of the same access problems that Seoul does. Park Kyoung-seok and SADD representatives went to the Paris metro line 14 on August 29th – the line that has been made fully accessible through Olympics funding. Once inside of the train, the protesters got out of their wheelchairs and began to crawl in the train, voicing their demand for solidarity and rights. The protest was successful in that it did draw international attention to mobility for disabled people. The coverage was international and additional stories of athletes to the Paralympic Games having difficulty either reaching the games or moving around Paris received headline coverage as well.
You can read more about SADD here.
