Ensuring deaf people's right to access information

Hello, This is Nuri Park from Peace Winds Korea.

I am here to share with you the next story of Deafnuri team.

This time, I would like to tell you a story that we couldn't tell you all in the 3rd interview.

Topic of the 3rd interview was ‘The Deafnuri relationship and Social discrimination they faced’.

The question was “Can you please share with us a brief story about discrimination in your daily life that each of you felt?”

 A: Our team was selected to work on a project aimed to fostering social entrepreneurs. As a part of the project, we are required to attend various educational session like networking events, and one-on-one mentoring. In generaly. the interpretation service should be provided at such events, but the agency managing the project informed us that they could not support the cost of interpretation due to budgetary constraints, Instead, we were told that we would need to pay for these services by ourselves”.

Therefore, I asked them to allocate budget for the interpretation service separately, but the official said that this could be considered reverse discrimination since it would mean our team received a larger budget than others. Also, He suggested that we use our project budget to cover the cost of interpretation instead. Since we believe that translation costs will not be a big part of whole budget, we didn't expect it to have a significant impact on other teams' budgets. I expressed my concern that this was discriminatory, but they remained silent. It left me feeling upset and saddened.

B: Disabled students and universities facing a shortage of stenographer

I am fortunate to be receiving shorthand support this semester, but accessing this service has always been a challenge in the past. I had hoped to take an orientation class to get enough class information, therefore I searched information to get help. but I was informed by the official at the Disabled Student Support Center and the staff in charge of remote shorthand services that there is a high demand for stenographers because many universities are seeking stenographers urgently. This shortage seems to be more pronounced in universities located in rural areas compared to those in the capital region.

C: I had a recent experience that left me frustrated. I visited a café and placed an order for a beverage using my phone. I wished they had communicated with me in writing to double-check my order. Even though I gestured for them to write it down, they spoke to me wearing masks, making it difficult for me to understand. Eventually, I nodded my agreement, feeling like I had wasted my time. Usually, when I go to a restaurant or café, I always ask the staff to write down to ensure clear communication. However, it can be disheartening when some people ignore my requests.

D: I recently felt disappointed while watching a public service advertisement on TV. The advertisement was about forest fire prevention and featured Um Hong-gil as the main character. While watching, I noticed a small sign language interpreter appearing on the right-hand side of the screen. While I appreciated the effort to include sign language interpretation, I found it difficult to focus on the interpreter. If the sign language interpreter had been given a more prominent position, it would have been easier for deaf people to access the information accurately.

E: I'd like to share something that has been on my mind. When I was considering enrolling in graduate school, I asked a professor for advice. While discussing the possibility of doing research together, I was told that it might be challenging because of my disability. I believe there were other reasons for my rejection, but he mentioned my disability. I felt disappointed that he considered only my disability as a main factor in the decision.

Even though there are various means of communication available, such as text translation, sign language interpretation, and voice translation, It was frustrated when I excluded from certain projects because of communication challenges. Additionally, I was embarrassed because people made decisions without taking the time to address and resolve disagreements.

That concludes our interview for today. Thank you for your time. I look forward to conducting more interesting interviews in the next time.

Please support Deafnuri and change the world with them.

Thank you once again for your invaluable support! We will be sure to keep you informed about our work in the coming months.

Best regards!

Nuri Park, Peace Winds Korea

P.S. You can also comments & suggestions on Report. We would love to hear your feedback, comments & Suggestion on our program.

Email : pwk@peacewindskorea.org