The ‘Guidebook with Universal Designs for Convenient Use of Public Facilities' is distributed by the Ministry of Interior on Aug. 16. (Ministry of Interior and Safety)
By Oh Hyun Woo and Kim Min-Jeung
A young Philippine woman in her 20s married a Korean citizen last year. Because her Korean is not yet fluent, she has difficulties using the community center when looking for certain governmental services, since most forms and submissions have to be made in Korean.
As the numbers of multi-cultural families and non-ethnic Koreans living in Korea are increasing, more and more residents here are experiencing difficulties with administrative services. The case is even worse for the elderly or handicapped.
To solve this problem, the Ministry of Interior and Safety (MOIS) started distributing brochures on Aug. 16 that provide guidelines for the convenient use of government services at local government offices and at other public buildings.
The booklet uses pictograms with standardized concepts to help the public understand government services here. It suggests written English for non-Koreans who have difficulty speaking Korean, and proposes solutions for the elderly with sight problems. There are also examples of how to create a better environment for the elderly and handicapped.
Kim Il Jae, director of the Government Innovation Organization at the MOIS, said that he hopes that “all public institutions work together to provide indiscriminate administrative services to all residents who experience difficulties living here in Korea.”