SKT Wins International Award for 'GoyohanM' Supporting the Hearing Impaired

Awarded at the 3rd Human City Design Award

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] SK Telecom's ‘Goyohan M’ service, which helps hearing-impaired taxi drivers using ICT technology, has been recognized as a case of expanding job opportunities for people with disabilities and won an international design award.

SK Telecom and social venture company Co-Actors announced on the 22nd that their joint project for hearing-impaired taxi drivers, Goyohan M, jointly won the ‘Safety and Security Award’ (Special Award) at the 3rd Human City Design Awards presented by the Seoul Design Foundation.

The Human City Design Awards is an international award given to organizations that solve various urban problems through creative solutions. It is hosted by the Seoul Design Foundation and supported by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, marking its third year this year.

The Human City Design Awards judging committee stated that the ‘Goyohan M’ service is an innovative case that expands job opportunities for hearing-impaired people using ICT technology and presents a business model. To date, Goyohan M has produced 111 hearing-impaired drivers, and the cumulative number of rides has surpassed 230,000.

SK Telecom added a ‘turn signal notification function’ to the ‘UT app’ (formerly T map Taxi) so that hearing-impaired drivers can easily recognize taxi call signals visually while driving, and also developed a feature that allows passengers and drivers to communicate via messages during calls. Hearing-impaired drivers are provided with the ‘T Care Smartwatch’ to easily connect to 112 in emergencies or transmit location information.

Ye Ji-young, head of SK Telecom’s ESG Alliance, said, “We will continue to lead ESG management by introducing barrier-free services that help socially vulnerable groups using ICT technologies such as AI that SKT possesses.”

Song Min-pyo, CEO of Co-Actors, said, “We are pleased that our efforts to create stable jobs for hearing-impaired people have been recognized. We will continue to strive to make Goyohan M loved by customers.”

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