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The combination of the words barrier and free━barrier-free, means tearing down institutional and physical barriers that often discomforts the disabled. The barrier-free movement began with voices calling for the destruction of the thresholds of housing and public facilities, to make buildings and facilities accessible to the handicapped. This barrier- free drive has also entered universities including Korea University (KU), leading students to think once more about the need for consideration of the disabled people.
 
Ipselenti “Jiya Hamsung” (Roar of Wisdom and Wilderness), the annual Ko-Yon Games, and the cheering sessions are major events of KU that all the students are supposed to enjoy. However, the disabled students have always been deprived of the opportunity to take part in these events. Last year, barrier free seats for the disabled students were newly installed. However, other excited students invaded these seats defeating their purposes. Similar situations were repeated in the 2017 spring semester cheering sessions. Hopefully, this will be awake-up call for the KU students and the administration about the need to respect the disabled students.
 
To make improvement in the school lives of the disabled students, the KU Support Center for Handicapped Students opened on the first floor of the 4.18 Memorial Hall, in 2008. This center provides a comfortable space for the disabled students to study in, along with a resting room and a sleeping room. The KU Support Center for Handicapped Students makes substantial efforts considering the characteristics and individualities of the disabilities to improve the students’ learning abilities. In its efforts to help handicapped students the Support Center also provides writing and transportation assistants for the severely disabled students.
 
Although considerable improvement has been made by the school compared to the past, there is still a long way to go in making the campus lives of the disabled more convenient. For example, the absence of elevators in the older KU buildings such as the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Law Annex makes it difficult for the disabled students to get to their classes. Many have requested for the installation of elevators in those buildings but nothing has happened yet. Ko Sang Hyun (’14,Business Administration), the head of KU Disabled Association (KUDA), pointed out that, “Most of the actions taken by the school for the disabled students seem to be merely for show, usually taken into action after tenacious requests.”
 
What makes things worse for thdisabled students is the indifference of the able-bodied students, a good example being how the reserved special seatings at the cheering sessions were invaded. Ko said, “Most students do not even realize that many problems threatening the rights of the disabled students arise frequently.” Therefore, stronger efforts of the students to promote awareness have recently been made. One such effort was hosting the barrier-free film festival which was held on campus in March. KUDA also hosted special events like placing wheel chairs in front of staircases in KU, to highlight how inconvenient the stairs are for the disabled students.
 
Today, with the term “disabled” being used as a humiliating slang, the lives of the disabled may seem afar. However, students and administrators should remember that five percent of the Korean population is handicapped and that there are more than 150 disabled students attending KU. Disabled students are not strangers in the university society. Care, Communication, We, Help, and Together—these are the key words of KU’s new efforts to make a barrier-free campus. KU students should bear these words in mind to make a better school for all its members. When one starts thinking that the disabled are one of us this will naturally shed light on issues surrounding the disabled students which will, in effect, be the first step in changing KU into a school without barriers.
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