CALLS FOR BILLS TO HELP DISABLED PEOPLE

[Anchor Lead]

It's been four decades since Day for the Disabled was designated, but in reality people with disabilities still face a lot of discrimination in society. Many are calling on the National Assembly to process bills on the disabled at the new parliamentary session next month.

[Pkg]

​People with disabilities hold protests on a motorway. With signs reading, "Guarantee human rights for the disabled" hanging on their necks, the demonstrators move while holding onto a rope to maintain a distance of two meters between one another. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, only some 250 people participated in this year's event marking the Day for the Disabled, a sharp decrease from the usual two thousand. They took to the streets despite the rainy weather to demand an end to discrimination against the disabled and their social exclusion.

[Soundbite] CHA HAN-SEON : "When I take a subway in my electric wheelchair, many people look at me with pity. But I'm not miserable. I wish they didn't have that kind of bias."

The participants also demanded measures to protect people with disabilities from COVID-19, as they are especially susceptible to the virus.

[Soundbite] "The 21st National Assembly must abolish the disability rating system!"

Disability rights activists urged the National Assembly to legislate a law guaranteeing the rights of persons with disabilities, one of the election campaign pledges of President Moon Jae-in.

[Soundbite] PARK KYUNG-SEOK(CO-CHAIR OF SOLIDARITY AGAINST DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION) : "President Moon Jae-in, keep your promises. You promised to get rid of the disability rating system, but it's still exists."

Calling the Day for the Disabled "a day for ending discrimination against persons with disabilities and their social exclusion," the activists stressed that the disabled are individuals who deserve their rights, not objects of compassion.