"Insisting on Phone Consultations Only for Hearing-Impaired Clients"... Human Rights Commission Recommends Staff Training for Foundation

"Failure to Provide Reasonable Accommodation Is Discrimination"

The National Human Rights Commission has recommended that a credit guarantee foundation provide disability awareness training to its staff after it failed to offer alternative consultation methods to a client with hearing impairment, relying solely on phone consultations.

National Human Rights Commission of Korea, Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

On May 19, the Commission announced that it had recommended the credit guarantee foundation in region A to share this case with all staff members and conduct job training. This was due to the foundation’s failure to provide consultations that took into account the disability of a hearing-impaired client during the process of handling a policy support application.

The complainant, who has a hearing impairment, applied for loan support through a mobile app and submitted related documents such as a disability registration card. However, the foundation staff attempted to contact the complainant multiple times by phone. Later, the complainant’s family received the call and explained that phone consultation was difficult, inquiring about the possibility of face-to-face or written guidance, or the use of alternative communication methods. The complainant claims these requests were not accepted.

According to the Commission’s investigation, the foundation closed the complainant’s application as “rejected” without providing any alternative consultation or guidance. In response, the foundation explained that it did not inform the complainant that only phone consultation was possible, but only explained that the company referenced by the complainant had not reported any sales for the past three months, making the loan difficult to grant. The foundation also stated that after the complaint was filed, a deputy branch manager attempted to visit in person for a face-to-face consultation, but the family declined the meeting.

The Commission’s Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities determined that the foundation ended the application without providing alternative consultation methods or guidance tailored to the disability and, even during the face-to-face consultation process, unilaterally decided the consultation method without sufficient discussion. The Commission also pointed out that these actions were not in line with the foundation’s internal customer service manual.

A representative from the Commission stated, “Failing to provide reasonable accommodation constitutes discrimination,” adding, “Under the current operational methods, similar cases are likely to recur in the future.”

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