Nowon-gu Establishes Disability-Friendly Hospital Following Disability-Friendly Hair Salon Initiative

Nowon-gu Signs Agreement with Local Medical Institutions for Disability-Friendly Hospitals
Aiming to Enhance Medical Convenience for Disabled and Expand Health Promotion Projects
Leading Changes in Medical Services Following Disability-Friendly Hair Salons
September 2: District Office, Medical Institutions, and Disability Groups Join Hands to Establish and Operate Disability-Friendly Hospitals

Nowon-gu (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) announced that it will establish a disability-friendly medical system within the local community.

The district has introduced the nation’s first disability-friendly beauty salon equipped with barrier-free facilities, creating an environment where people with disabilities can comfortably receive beauty services. In addition, it operates various disability-friendly policies such as creating barrier-free walking trails and integrated playgrounds.

Going a step further, the district plans to apply the successful case of the disability-friendly beauty salon to medical services where disability convenience facilities are essential. To this end, it will create a ‘disability-friendly hospital’ equipped with convenience facilities that various types of disabled people can easily use and staffed by professionals with a high awareness of disabilities.

First, it will sign a business agreement with local hospitals including ▲Hamkke Georeum Medical Welfare Social Cooperative ▲Miz’s Eye Plaza Obstetrics and Gynecology, and disability organizations such as ▲Nowon-gu Disabled Persons’ General Association ▲Seoul Disabled Parents Solidarity Nowon Branch.

Through the agreement, they will mutually cooperate to ▲expand convenience facilities for disabled patients ▲promote disability-friendly hospitals ▲discover easily accessible medical institutions ▲provide disability awareness education for medical staff ▲and expand participation of medical institutions. In particular, expanding convenience facilities for disabled patients within medical institutions aims to improve hospital accessibility for people with disabilities and create an environment where they can receive medical services more conveniently.

A Nowon-gu office official expressed expectations for this agreement, saying, "Through the establishment of disability-friendly hospitals, difficulties in the medical process experienced by people with disabilities, such as high reception desks, examination spaces inconvenient for wheelchair users, and challenges due to lack of awareness about disabilities, will be reduced, making medical access easier for people with disabilities."

The district plans not only to expand medical and convenience facilities for people with disabilities through this agreement but also to actively discover new projects to promote the health of people with disabilities.

The business agreement ceremony for the establishment and operation of the disability-friendly hospital will be held at Nowon-gu Office on September 2nd at 4 p.m., attended by representatives from Hamkke Georeum Medical Welfare Social Cooperative, Miz’s Eye Plaza Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nowon-gu Disabled Persons’ General Association, and Seoul Disabled Parents Solidarity Nowon Branch.

Meanwhile, as part of its projects to promote the health of people with disabilities, the district held the ‘Disability Healthy Yard’ event last May to help manage the health of people with disabilities. The event provided health-related information and practical assistance through various health screening programs, receiving great responses.

Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu, stated, "We are striving to remove various ‘thresholds’ in daily life, as seen in the case of establishing the disability-friendly beauty salon," and added, "We will continue to develop pioneering policies so that people with disabilities can enjoy comfort in daily life without discrimination from non-disabled people."

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