Six People Including Lee Su-yeon Awarded for Webtoon Depicting Personal Stories of Hearing Impairment

Selection of Citizens and Organizations Awarded the 2020 'Seoul Welfare Award in the Field of Disability Human Rights'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] On the 20th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 19th that it will award the '2020 Seoul Welfare Award' in the field of disability human rights to six individuals, including freelance webtoon artist Lee Soo-yeon (30, female, photo), who has been leading efforts to improve awareness of disabilities and promote the human rights of persons with disabilities, in commemoration of the '40th Disability Day.'

Lee, selected as the grand prize winner in the category for persons with disabilities, has been serializing the webtoon "I Am Deaf," which she created over two years starting in 2015 on Naver Webtoon, depicting her experiences living as a hearing-impaired person in a lighthearted and witty manner.

This webtoon not only led to the creation of a real-time captioning service that helps improve communication for hearing-impaired individuals but also served as a catalyst for improvements in identity verification systems through voice ARS (automatic response systems) at financial institutions and the establishment of communication relay services for hearing-impaired travelers abroad.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government explained that Lee was selected as the grand prize winner in recognition of her positive attitude and strong will as a person with a disability, contributing significantly to raising awareness and enhancing human rights so that both persons with and without disabilities can understand each other easily and pleasantly.

In the category for persons with disabilities, the excellence award went to Lee Seung-il (49, male, spinal cord disability), team leader at Gangnam Pedro Hospital, who has tirelessly worked for the mobility rights and sports development of persons with disabilities. The merit award was jointly given to Nam Jeong-han (44, male, visual impairment), director of the Siloam Center for Independent Living of Persons with Disabilities, and Choi Ye-na (29, female, hearing impairment), assistant manager at Starbucks Korea.

In the category for supporters of disability human rights promotion, the excellence award was given to Korea University club 'Enactus CommA,' which develops and distributes communication tools for persons with communication difficulties. The merit award went to Park Joo-hyun (49, female), who develops specialized clothing for persons with disabilities, including those with brain lesions and physical stiffness, allowing them to wear pretty and comfortable clothes.

The award ceremony is usually held at the annual Disability Day commemorative event, but this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of social distancing measures, the ceremony will be conducted online with the Seoul city character Haechi visiting the awardees.

Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul, said, "On the occasion of Disability Day, I am very pleased to discover hidden heroes who have succeeded in independence through their abilities and expertise and bring hope and inspiration to many people across society, and to present the Seoul Welfare Award to them. We will continue to do our best to realize various policies to create a Seoul where persons with and without disabilities can be happy together and where persons with disabilities can live proudly as citizens."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.