Disabled blog post #5

Discussion questions

0. Did you have stereotypes about the disability which have been recognized or broken after reading articles in our blog posts or listening to our presentations? 

1.1. Do you have friends in SNU with a disability? Did you have frineds with a disability when you were in a middle or high school? Do you think your treatment toward them has changed before/after you get into SNU? 

1.2. Do you know any cases that the condition which once recognized as disability in the past has changed to be not nowadays?
Also, do you think the certain condition being considered as disability thesedays can be changed to be not in the future (because of both the medical developments and the social changes)

2.1. Is it righteous to treat disabled as social disadvantaged? Do you agree with the idea that the disability is not the medical concept but the social concept?
 
2.2. Do you think one's deed can/should be more praised if he/she has a disability?  
( HyunWook said it is embarrassing that peers in SNU appraise him so much when he was a freshman even though he just succeeded in getting into SNU like them. ) 
 (However, it would be actually more difficult to achieve the same thing with a disability )

2.3. Do you think it would be fine if SNU increases openings for disabled applicants while reducing regular openings? 
(How do you think about the affirmitive actions toward the disabled people ) 

3.1. What would you do if you find out your child has a disability before he/she was born?

Disabled students Blog Post#4

Interview

 

Hyun Ji's interviw

HyunWook

 

 Our first interviewee was Hyun-Wook, a senior student majoring business in SNU.
We have talked mostly about the disability he has, and the things he has experienced in his school life-to be specific, the experiences related to the disability.
 

The disability he has: What, When, How

 

  He has a hearing disability. He can't hear any sound smaller than 90-100 decibel.
It is quite serious in that the sound when the fight takes off the ground is about 110 decibel.

Although he was born with the disability, he began to really 'admit' that he has a disability not until he was 5 years old. At that time, he thought of his situation negatively. 
But when he realized that the situation could not be changed, he decided to change his mind that it can also be positive enough. 
However, he said to me that the other people he had met who got the disability 'in the course of the lifetime' seemed to have more difficult times in acknowledging their situations, because whenever they were faced with the difficulty because of the disabilities, they missed the time before they got the disabilities.   


 How to communicate with the disability he has


He can hear the voices with the hearing aid names 'Cochlear implant(보청기)'
He has used that device since 2006 when he entered the middle school, and from that time he could follow the school work well so got the high scores in the exames.

Even though he could not hear perfectly even with the aid, he has practiced to interpret the shae of the lipes of the people who are talking with hims.(구화)   

 

The negative/positive experiences he had in SNU compared to other places, times.

 

There are some differences from the people in SNU compared to the students in the middle and high schools he had attented before SNU.

 

The difference in a positive way is that they are really thoughtful and consider his physical difference with others very much.

For example, in the (대학국어) class when he was freshman, his classmates were open to admit the exception for him to be given the speech time for 20 minutes while the original time was 10 minutes. And they even responded to the teacher's suggestion as those kind of different treatments lead to the 'real equality'. 

However, when he was a high school student, the classmates were really sensitive to the different treatment only for him especially in scoring because it was directly related to the issuce of entrancing good universities. So he could not get the needed exceptions in English Listening tests.  

 

However, the difference in a negative way also exists. The really thoughtful treatments were also uncomfortable for Hyun-Wook. In the class mentioned above, his teammates 'excessively' consider his disability so that he was almost totally excluded from any jobs the team had to do including the recording and transcribing which has had continously insisted that he could also do.

He said that he felt his intend was completely 'ignored' and disregarded.

 

Other stereotypes he has experienced in SNU  

He also said that there exists the stereotype in a opposite way of the case above. Sometimes he met people who regarded him so great and appraised his achievements of getting into SNU so highly, which was also uncomfortable to him. 
He said he just liked to study, studied hard as much as normal SNU students did, and there were no dramatic challenges as other people generally expect.    
 

Finally, he said there are some other stereotypes that people with the hearing disability may be knowledgeable about the sign language(수화) while he doesn't know anything about it.

He said the trend is changed into interpreting the shapes of people's lipes(구화) because for successful communication, it is also important for the other people to know the language and most people are not knowledgable with the sign language.  

 

Also, he said one of the stereotypes is that people with hearing disability disreagard other people because they sometimes could not hear voices calling him if people who called are behind him. And also, they could miss some of the diverse opinions in the discussions. He thinks this stereotype is different with other stereotypes because it is inevitable.

 

Hak Hyeon's Interview

Tae-U

I interviewed my SNU friend, Tae-U, who uses automatic wheelchair to move. He is majoring in psychology, same as me but senior. We talked about him and his disability, his life with disability in SNU, and stereotypes he had experienced. And I added my own question I had have.

Who Tae-U is

     He was in a wheelchair, so at first I thought he had a disability with legs. But he said to me that he was born with a muscle weakening. So he also couldn’t move other parts of body well. When he was 5 years old, he recognized his difference from others because he couldn’t play soccer with friends. But he did not fall in frustration. Only what he was upset with was the fact that he couldn’t hang out with his friends. Even now, his that mind has not changed.

 After entering in SNU he was to live in SNU. This university provides some kind of complex housing for family of university member such as professors and graduate students. But this housing is open to disabled students also. Thanks to this, he can go to classes in time by his automatic wheelchair, which run at 20km/h maximum.

Life with disability in SNU

 

“Living in SNU as a disabled is quite a nice thing.” Tae-U said. In his view, environments of SNU is very disabled-friendly compared to any other places he remembered. It has a lot of facilities and welfare program for the disabled like him. And also, peer students are big kind and nice to them. Just one thing he could say what he wanted is the new library called ‘Gwan-Jeong’ has to be more sensitive. There, especially at market place, are no sloops at the entrances of any markets. He said he wants it to be changed.

A stereotype he had experienced in SNU

     As he said before, he could hardly remember any experiences of being insulted or discriminated.  It was quite impressive. I asked really there had not been any memories, and he answered that at least superficially, there had not been any special.
     More focusing on stereotype, not discrimination, as in the video we saw at the class time, he mentioned the stereotype about sexual things. He has a girlfriend, and they has met for three years. He said to me that when they had decided to go out with each other, she first had worried about sexual things. But it couldn’t matter! Her worry disappeared as if by magic. He thought that this stereotype is almost wrong.

How does we act?

     Finally, I added my own question that I had been looking forward to being answered. I asked him how I act when I meet a disabled person in trouble. Do I help him/her? Or Do I wait until he/she calls for a help? He told me that in that situation I should think a disabled person as if he/she is not disabled. If I am a helping and outgoing man, I shall help. On the other hand, if I was not, I shall not. He said to me that don't be worry too much. Yes. He is right. We should treat the disabled people like others. If we apply the special action to them, it becomes kind of hidden bias(This last part is my own opinion from hearing).

 

Dongju's interview 

Yoon A Kim

 

My teammate Hyun-ji introduced me one of her friend she met in club Turntoable, Yoon A Kim. So I scheduled interview in 10/28 and went to the SNU Business School to conduct interview. Below is the brief synopsis of the interview.

Her life before SNU

           Yoon A originally lived in Cheon-an, Chung-chung. She was a brilliant and intelligent child, so her parents were very devoted to her education. However, she heard devastating news at age of 11. Doctor told her that she had a brain tumor and she had to go through surgery right away. After the surgery, she noticed that her lower body and part of her upper body was paralyzed. She and her family were literally ‘devastated’ when they heard the news, and that despair was around her family quite a long time.

           Although she could not use her lower body, she still could use her right hand, so she did not have major trouble doing her studies. She studied very hard and went to Chungnam Foreign High school, which is highly competitive high school in the region. She also exceled in her school and succeeded to get accepted in SNU.

Her life now

           She is living in family dormitory which is just under the regular dormitory. It’s near business school, so she does not go through serious difficulty in campus. There is also shuttle bus for disabled students, so she could go anywhere she want if it is inside campus. But it gets harder when it comes to using transportation outside campus. There is cab for disabled people provided by city, but she has to wait for 10~ 60 minutes for it.

Thoughts about disabled

 

           She said that she becoming disabled made her to think more about disabled people in Korea. She thought that there are two ways to enhance circumstance for disabled people. First is that we should make the direct channel to administration or office so that they could hear the voices of disabled. She said that the fact that there is way to enhance the situation for disabled people is very assuring. Second is that attitude that disabled people should change. She said members of SNU community tends to be well educated so they do know what to do and what not to do. However, people she met in everyday lives often do not act that way. So she hopes people would think over before saying something to disabled people.

 

Stereotypes?

 

           She believes there is no particular widespread stereotypes about physically disabled people, but there still is narrower stereotypes. One is that people think all disabled people would actively need help. She said she appreciates their help but it is better when the help is given when she asks. Also, because of this stereotype, there is view that consider disabled people as unthankful people while they just didn’t need help. Other stereotype is that people believe disabled people’s personality would be all similar. She said she is a bit shy and introverted, but there is other disabled people who is very outgoing and energetic.

Disabled students Blog Post#3

Here are more researches about our subculture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video

Sorry;; we accidently didn't noticed you to see this clip until 29:40. Please watch this clip until 29:40
 

Oceanographer and Professor Lee Sang-mook, Overcoming adversity to find new hope

Article

article#1

In South Korea, people with hearing disability live in a different world

This article shows that how lack of interpretation may cause severe harm in disabled people's life.

Blogs

blog#1

Living with a disability in Korea

This article says that people with disability are rarely seen in society because there are unconscious and general discriminations toward disabled.

blog#2

Seoul, South Korea

It's too long to read, but very impressive. Its's about complete review of accessibility in Seoul available from any resource by John's wheelchair. You may not read all of these. We recommend you to read 'Public Transportation' and 'Wheelchair Taxis'..

Interview form-Disabled students Blog Post#2

Interview / for physically disabled people

 

A : (Introduction) Hi, B. Thank you for your participation to our project. I will introduce the project from now on. This project is about the physically disabled subculture of SNU students, done in SNU advanced-english class. (Passing the informed consent) It’s the information you have to know concerning this interview. Is there any question about our interview?

 

 

1. Self Introduction

:Starting from the questions that are not sensitive to more sensitive questions

 

Q1-0. (After giving some self-introduction) This category is about your personal information. Would you give me a brief introduction about yourself?

 

Q1-1. (If not mentioned) Where are you living now?

 

Q1-2. How do you come to the university, what transport do you use?

 

Q1-3. If it isn’t an excuse, I want to know when the disability came to you.

 

Q1-4. Tell me a mind that you had at that time briefly if you would like to.

 

Q1-5. Is there any change of mind after that?

 

 

2. Campus Life in SNU as a disability (compared to other places/time)

 

Q2-1. In your whole life, is there any good story that come across your mind?

 

Q2-2. And also, is there any bad story?

 

Q2-3. In facilities or system, what differences do you feel between inside and outside of SNU?

 

Q2-4. And also, in people, what differences do you feel?

 

Q2-5. What facilities or system do you want to be applied in SNU?

 

 

 

3. To be specific, Stereotypes they have experienced during the Campus Life in SNU

 

Q3-0. Throughout our class, I got some stereotypes students have of physically disabled people like ~~~~~. Are there any more you want to fix or add?

 

Q3-1. In your view, tell me the very one stereotype that may be right, and tell us the reason from your own experience.

 

Q3-2. In your view, tell me the very one stereotype that may be wrong, and tell us the reason from your own experience.

 

Q3-3. Finally, tell some expectations you hope people to behave when they treat physically disabled people.

Disabled students Blog Post#1

Our group intend to study disabled students of Korea, especially 'Disabled students of SNU'.

We selected this subculture because of the following reasons:

1. Availability for speaking English

2. Physical adjacency

3. Established connection with our group

 

Through research and discussion, we identified the most common stereotypes about disabled students is ‘extremeness’. Most people bring one of two images in their mind when they are asked to think about disabled person. They either think of ‘Redemption scenario’ which is related with dramatically overcoming their disability, or ‘Despair scenario’ which is about submitting to their disability.

 

So we have set our goal to study about the ‘real disabled people’ living around us. Since we have connection with student club ‘Turntoable(student community whose objective is to provide environment that disabled students can study without inconvenience)’ we would be able to contact with disabled SNU students and SNU students who help disabled students.

Interview schedules would be set during early October and we intend to conduct our interviews inside SNU campus.

 

And these are the researches we have done about how disabled people are living in Korea.

 

 

Recommend to watch this video from 29:50

 

This interview footage introduces Professor Kim Jong-Bae, at Department of Occupational Therapy, Yonsei University. At age of 24, he injured his neck and since then, he could not move his body below waist. However, he did not fell in despair and started to develop assistive devices for disabled people like him. This video is about his struggle for helping other disabled people.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20150421001191

Two families with disabilities, two very different stories

“Glittering Hands,” is an autobiographical documentary that a daughter narrates the real story about her parents with hearing impairments. This documentary depicts the lives of disabled people as peaceful and harmonious. Yet, “Thank You, Daddy”, a French film about a father and his disabled son,emphasize the difficulties that disabled person and his family go though.

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3009514&cloc=joongangdaily%7Chome%7Cnewslist2

Im rising as star in wheelchair tennis

Im Ho-won, 17, is a Korean wheelchair tennis player, and was recently ranked in world No. 35. Despite his physical challenge, people give him a chance to play tennis by giving him a tennis racket,a ball and scholarship with no hesitance. He is now a rising star in tennis worldwide, and he will participate in the Rio Paralympics next year.

http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/article/koreas-invisible-people

This autobiographical article is about a Korean student who has a cerebral palsy. He says that he is fed up with people's perspective that either praises him for his spirit or pities him for his disability. He always wants to be independent and consider that the Korean government should give disabled people more chances to get a job instead of just providing them financial support.

http://www.visionaware.org/blog/visionaware-blog/my-life-in-korea-by-visionaware-peer-advisor-lenore-dillon/12

This article was written by Lenore Dillon, a Visionaware peer advisor. She has come to South Korea to teach the students with disabilities in Korea Nazarene University. She tells story about solving wheelchair parking problems at campus, since her husband is on wheelchair.