[Article from March 30th, 2022]

Here are some excerpts, and some key points I have put in bold:

Disabled rights activists have been protesting recently at Seoul subway stations to make them more wheelchair accessible. Controversy follows social media posts by the leader of the country’s ruling conservative party who blames advocates of “playing the minority” card to hold others hostage. Meanwhile, the presidential transition committee has promised action.

Since the end of 2021, the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) group has been involved in a protest campaign to raise public awareness about the obstacles disabled people face every day in urban settings.

In particular, the group has held disruptive actions in Seoul’s subway, preventing the closing of train doors with their own wheelchairs, thus causing delays.

In his social media posts, Lee [leader of the conservative-leaning People Power Party] says that such protests cannot be justified as legitimate. “I demand SADD to stop its current method of protest which is holding many random citizens as hostages," Lee said on his Facebook page on Sunday. “Such irrationality calls for an active intervention,” he added, urging the police and Seoul Metro to take steps to stop the demonstrations.

Reacting to Lee’s statement, some MPs showed up on Monday at the group's rallies to express their solidarity.

“The kind of democracy that Korea needs is one that clearly demonstrates such opinions belong to just one man – that is Lee Jun-seok – and they cannot be the official stance of a political party,” said a lawmaker from the small left-wing Justice Party.

Another MP who joined the protest was Kim Ye-ji, a blind lawmaker from Lee’s own PPP, who apologised on behalf of her party.

SADD started the fight in 2001. Their goal is that disabled people be able to move independently on public transport just like any other South Korean citizen. Although 94 per cent of all Seoul subway train stations are equipped with elevators to allow access to platforms, the promise 20 years ago that all would be wheelchair accessible has not yet been fulfilled. SADD’s demands go further to make all public transport (buses and taxis) to accessible to people with mobility issues.

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Another article + excerpts:

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220328000731 [March 28th, 2022]

“Over countless election seasons through the years we’ve met with mayors, presidential candidates and politicians, and promises have fallen short,” [a member of the disability rights advocacy group] said.

To Lee’s argument that 94 percent of Seoul subway stations already had elevators, Park [the group’s co-leader] said they were promised by then-mayors that 100 percent of them would have one. In the last two decades, while Seoul was slow to install elevators at its subway stations, disabled subway riders have lost their lives after falling off a wheelchair stair lift.