Persons with Disabilities

A social agenda surrounding people who face restrictions in daily and social life due to physical or mental impairments, and their rights, welfare, and systems.

Persons with Disabilities

Overview

Persons with disabilities (障礙人) refers to people who face considerable restrictions in daily life and social life due to impairment or defect of physical or mental functions, or chronic illness. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 16% of the global population lives with some form of disability, and registered persons with disabilities in Korea number around 2.6 million, about 5% of the total population. In modern society, the social model—which sees disability not as an individual defect but as a result produced by social structures and environments—has become mainstream, and the rights of persons with disabilities have become a core axis of the human rights agenda.

Key Content

Two Perspectives on Disability

The traditional medical model views disability as an object of treatment and correction and positions the person as a patient and an object of protection. The social model, by contrast, holds that social barriers such as stairs, small print, broadcasts without subtitles, and prejudice make people disabled. WHO's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) integrates these two perspectives and assesses impairment, activity limitations, and participation restrictions together.

Types and Classification of Disability

Korea's Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities defines 15 types of disability. They are physical disability, brain lesion disability, visual impairment, hearing impairment, speech disability, intellectual disability, autistic disorder, mental disorder, kidney disability, heart disability, respiratory disability, liver disability, facial disability, ostomy and urostomy disability, and epilepsy disability. In addition, discussion continues on recognizing disabilities outside the institutional framework, such as intractable diseases, rare diseases, and multiple disabilities.

History and the Human Rights Movement

In ancient and medieval times, persons with disabilities were subject to exclusion and persecution, and in the 20th century they suffered the tragedy of forced sterilization and mass murder based on eugenics. The UN International Year of Disabled Persons in 1981 helped spread rights discourse, and with the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006, accessibility, self-determination, and deinstitutionalization were established as international norms. Korea ratified the convention in 2008.

Law and Systems

The Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities, the Act on the Prohibition of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities and Remedies for Infringed Rights (enacted in 2007, effective in 2008), the Act on Employment Promotion and Vocational Rehabilitation for Persons with Disabilities, the Act on Activity Support for Persons with Disabilities, the Act on Guarantee of Rights and Support for Persons with Developmental Disabilities, and the Assistive Device Support Act for Persons with Disabilities, Older Adults, etc. form the framework for guaranteeing rights. The Disability Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination in employment, education, use of facilities, mobility, access to information, and other areas, and mandates the provision of reasonable accommodations.

Welfare and Support Services

Representative systems include personal assistance services for persons with disabilities (activity assistance), disability pensions, disability allowances, support for medical expenses and assistive devices, rehabilitation treatment, special education, vocational rehabilitation, and the pilot program of primary doctors for the health of persons with disabilities. The grade system, which determined eligibility for services step by step according to the severity of disability, has been reorganized, with activity support for persons with disabilities switching to a comprehensive assessment method in 2019 and the disability pension in 2022.

Employment and Economic Activity

Under the mandatory employment system for persons with disabilities, public institutions are required to meet an employment rate of 3.4% and private companies 3.1%, with a levy imposed if they fall short. In practice, however, employment tends to be concentrated in simple, low-wage jobs, and the employment rate of persons with developmental disabilities and severe disabilities remains low. Sheltered workshops, standard workplaces, and support for the activities of disability-owned enterprises are also being pursued.

Accessibility and Mobility Rights

Low-floor buses, call taxis for persons with disabilities, tactile paving blocks, ramps, elevators, subtitles and sign language interpretation, screen readers, and easy-read texts are key means of physical and informational accessibility. Barrier-free design and universal design are principles for creating an environment that everyone can use from the outset. Nevertheless, problems such as broken subway elevators, refusal of wheelchair boarding, and insufficient accessibility of kiosks and apps are repeatedly raised.

Human Rights and Discrimination

Persons with disabilities are exposed to various forms of discrimination, including abuse, neglect, isolation, forced admission to institutions, violations of reproductive rights, and verbal derogation. Since the 2010s, protests and sit-ins demanding mobility rights and guarantees for deinstitutionalization have continued, and deinstitutionalization—meaning the settlement of persons with disabilities living in institutions into local communities—has emerged as a policy task.

Latest Trends

The trend in 2024–2025 can be summarized as the individualized budget system and integrated care. The personal budget system for persons with disabilities, in which service users directly select necessary support and spend a budget, has expanded as a pilot project, and 24-hour integrated care services for persons with the most severe developmental disabilities began in earnest in 2024, attempting to alleviate care gaps. At the same time, conflicts over cuts to the disability rights budget, demands for guarantees of mobility rights, and calls to improve subway and bus accessibility have continued. On the technological side, generative AI and voice recognition and translation technologies have greatly broadened information access for persons with visual and hearing disabilities, and wearable robots, wearable assistive devices, and autonomous shuttles are being demonstrated as new alternatives for mobility rights. In corporations, the trend of managing digital accessibility (web accessibility certification, kiosk accessibility standards) and employment of persons with disabilities as ESG indicators has spread, and reviews of implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and discussions of national reports are also influencing domestic policy. The remaining task is the gap between systems and reality—that is, making rights guaranteed by law actually work in daily life.