Nowon-gu's Efforts to Enhance Accessibility for Disabled Persons in Cultural and Artistic Events

Establishment of ‘Measures to Improve Convenience for Disabled Persons’ for Large-scale Public Events to Guarantee Cultural Enjoyment Rights and Enhance Accessibility for Disabled Persons

From the event planning stage, technical support and consultation from the Convenience Enhancement Technology Support Center, submission of a self-inspection checklist three days before the event, on-site investigation by the Disabled-Friendly City Monitoring Team, and detailed implementation processes established... Conducted comprehensive surveys and measures on public restrooms and street environments to improve accessibility in daily living areas for disabled persons

Entrance Door Monitoring

Nowon-gu (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) announced that it has established a system to inspect convenience facilities for disabled persons within indoor and outdoor event venues to guarantee the cultural enjoyment rights of disabled persons.

The registered disabled population in Nowon-gu is the second largest among Seoul’s autonomous districts, and including cohabiting family members, about 13% of the district’s residents are directly affected by disability welfare policies.

Accordingly, as Nowon-gu promotes itself as a ‘Cultural City Nowon’ and plans various events and festivals, it has established a ‘Public Event Convenience Improvement Plan for Disabled Persons’ and a pre-inspection system to prevent accessibility barriers caused by insufficient convenience facilities for disabled persons.

First, from the planning stage of large-scale gatherings of 500 or more people, consultation with the ‘Convenience Enhancement Technology Support Center’ is required if necessary. The center will provide technical support for the installation of convenience facilities for disabled persons within event venues.

Each department must prepare a self-inspection checklist and submit it to the Convenience Enhancement Technology Support Center at least three days before the event. The checklist includes ▲consideration of accessibility and convenience for socially vulnerable groups (disabled persons, elderly, children, pregnant women, etc.) and efforts to prevent accidents ▲appropriateness of ramps and access routes ▲condition of disabled restrooms ▲condition of parking spaces designated for disabled persons, among other items.

Subsequently, on-site verification is conducted by the ‘Disabled-Friendly City Monitoring Team.’ Composed of 15 disabled persons and disability welfare experts, the monitoring team focuses on inspecting aspects that can be immediately corrected on-site.

At the ‘1st Nowon Handmade Beer Festival,’ which was successfully held last month with about 50,000 visitors, the Convenience Enhancement Technology Support Center’s professional technical staff accompanied the event before it started to inspect the installation of convenience facilities for disabled persons within the venue. Immediate corrections were made such as ▲provision and installation of portable ramps ▲removal of obstacles in parking spaces designated for disabled persons ▲removal of walking obstructions around braille blocks and linear guidance blocks.

In addition, the district is conducting various surveys to improve accessibility for disabled persons in daily living areas and is making corrections from the perspective of the disabled persons themselves. From April last year, a comprehensive survey of 179 public restrooms in the area was conducted over two months to check whether each facility met installation standards and whether there were any inconveniences in actual use. The results have been shared with relevant departments, and corrective measures have been ordered.

Priority is being given to replacing the main entrance doors of disabled restrooms with automatic doors, and other non-compliant issues will be continuously inspected and supplemented.

The district is implementing disability convenience improvement policies that exceed legal standards, including mandatory prior consultation with the Disability Welfare Division when constructing or renovating public restrooms.

Pre-festival Inspection of Braille Blocks and More

Recently, to create a street environment centered on vulnerable pedestrians, 1,202 unnecessary vehicle entry prevention bollards were removed to provide a convenient walking environment for wheelchair and stroller users. A comprehensive survey of 3,512 crosswalk entrances and exits in the area has also been completed. An improvement plan including lowering curbs and improving braille blocks has been established, with phased construction planned annually.

Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu, said, “We have established a pre-inspection system for events to carefully consider the perspective of disabled persons so that all residents can truly enjoy the ambitious events prepared by the district. We will strive to raise disability sensitivity throughout the district administration and create a cultural city where everyone can enjoy together.”

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