Jo Seung-rae: "Budget for 'Kiosk Improvements' for the Elderly is Meager... Even Conducting a Survey is Difficult"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] It has been revealed that the budget for the kiosk improvement project, which is underway to solve the exclusion problem of the elderly and disabled who have difficulty using kiosks, is insufficient, making it difficult to even conduct a nationwide status survey.

According to data submitted by the Korea Information Society Agency (NIA) to Cho Seung-rae, a member of the National Assembly Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee (STIBC) from the Democratic Party of Korea (Daejeon Yuseong-gu Gap) on the 18th, the government budget allocated for the NIA’s “Unmanned Information Terminal (Kiosk) Information Accessibility Improvement Support Project” in 2020 was only 158 million KRW. This amount corresponds to a mere 0.056% of the total informatization project budget of 280.032 billion KRW supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT.

The Korea Information Society Agency is conducting the “Unmanned Information Terminal (Kiosk) Information Accessibility Status Survey” to investigate the inconvenience experienced by information-vulnerable groups such as the elderly and disabled in using kiosks and to utilize the data as a basis for policy. However, due to the severe budget shortage, last year the survey was limited to 800 kiosks installed in the metropolitan area.

Additionally, the agency has been carrying out “Kiosk Technology Development Support,” which pilots the creation of information accessibility compliance models for information-vulnerable groups and explores applicable fields. This led to the development of attachable keyboards and voice narration functions for the visually impaired. However, it was confirmed that due to budget constraints, there are difficulties in advancing the technology and commercializing it.

As kiosk usage has expanded due to digitalization and COVID-19, the exclusion problem of information-vulnerable groups has been continuously pointed out. According to the “Kiosk Usage Observation Survey” conducted by the Korea Consumer Agency last September, among five elderly people aged 70 or older, three failed to purchase tickets using kiosks at bus terminals, and none of the five completed orders using kiosks at fast-food restaurants.

Assemblyman Cho Seung-rae stated, “The Korea Information Society Agency’s ‘Kiosk Information Accessibility Improvement Support Project’ is the only government-level project aimed at improving kiosk accessibility for information-vulnerable groups, yet its budget has stagnated at 158 million KRW for two consecutive years in 2019 and 2020.” He added, “Now that kiosk use is becoming widespread due to digitalization and COVID-19, the Ministry of Science and ICT should expand the related budget to enable accurate nationwide status assessments and continuous accessibility improvement policies, and establish a cooperative system with related ministries such as the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.”

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