Disabled man barred from public service exam

Gang Yun-taek stands in front of the National Human Rights Commission in Seoul on September 2.

After studying for a year, no braille test provided

A 28-year-old visually disabled man, Gang Yun-taek, had gone to sit for this year’s Seoul Metropolitan Government civil service exam on September 1, but returned home without being able to answer one single question. The test center had not provided any braille test for the visually impaired.

Gang was forced by test officials to sit for the full 100 minutes at the exam with nothing to do, while others around him worked on the exam Kang had studied one year to take. Officials cited the danger of test questions being leaked during the exam as why they could not let him exit the examination hall.

On September 2, a day after the exam, Gang filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission, accusing the Seoul Metropolitan Government of undermining his freedom and right to choose a job. Gang, who double majored in social welfare and special education in college, had applied for city positions in the social welfare division. Gang has served as a teacher for the disabled since 2003. He had prepared for the exam for a year after getting a license for social welfare and his teacher’s certification in special education.

Responding to Gang’s case, Seoul Metropolitan Government official Seong Seok-geun said the city limits the hiring of disabled applicants as those "individuals who are able to perform administrative tasks in terms of their level of visual and hearing ability." Since 1989, the city began hiring a total of 759 disabled individuals, and 47 new disabled will be employed this year, he said. Seong added that the city will consider separating the visually and aurally disabled in their hiring process, rather than lumping them together in one category.

An Seung-jun, a senior official at a nationwide association of visually disabled citizens, said, "In Britain, an interpreter must be provided when someone with a hearing disability goes in for a job interview."

"Our society is not yet mature enough to be aware that disabled individuals can do the same work as non-disabled people if conditions are met," An said.