Emily Monahan asks,
How accommodating is Korea for the physically handicapped?
Oh! This is a question that a lot of people have been asking.
Right!
You know what? It’s amazing how this kind of question doesn’t necessarily affect you.
until you do something like break your ankle and will go around on crutches
and then started thinking about how inaccessible or accessible country is
Hmmm..
For those of you, who have been with us for awhile.
You might remember when we started "FAP FAP" maybe like two years ago
that’s because Martina broke her ankle and we couldn’t go on any adventures.
NAH NAH DA DUM DA DA DUM~
It’s wonderful adventure now in Korea.
It’s the painkiller mobile. (Laughs)
DA DA DA DUM DA DA DUM~
I broke my ankle... Of course saving a baby from umm.. getting hit by a car.
Such a noble cause you had.
or was it a kitten in the tree, that I climbed the tree to get the kitten out.
You were just dancing like a dummy at a Korean club
and then you rolled your ankle on somebody else’s foot.
It’s called jump dancing!
I was jump dancing and someone got underneath my foot. It was not my fault. I was set up as the bomb.
Anyhow, the whole point is that when you had your crotches
it was really challenging for you at that time.
We’re gonna go over some pros and cons that we saw in the city
and we are specifically talking about Seoul.
Outside of Seoul or smaller city or Busan, we’re not sure.
So you guys can have your input if you’re living in that area and
let us know in the comment section below.
Let’s start with transportation.
So on the subway line, there is an area on the actual subway cart that allows you to fit your wheelchair in.
Hmm-hum
We have seen people using it before.
Hmm-hum
Almost every subway
I mean I’ve never actually seen subway that didn’t have an elevator.
I can’t think of one either.
For the subway stations that don’t have elevators that lead you upstairs
we have seen the little.
It's like platform?
Ya! I’m not too sure about what the proper term is.
But there’s something that you could load your wheelchair onto it
and then it will like go really really slowly.
It will play you a song as it go up the stairs.
Ya, it actually, literally plays a song.
Yes
You’ll hear the song and so that people will get out of the way
because the subway station will be so busy with people walking
Right.
and it’ll take you up stairwell with the actual people.
That’s not to say that it’s perfect on the subways.
Cause I remember couple years ago
when we were taking the subway from Buchun to Seoul.
Oh, right!
We saw a guy in a wheelchair and
what he will do at every single stop, he would try to get off
and he would take a picture of the giant gap
between the door and the actual platform.
It was really difficult for me to get out of there.
It was interesting because most people thought that he couldn’t get off that they were trying to help him.
And he was like
No, no. I am okay.
Hmmm-hmm
He literally was documenting each gap between the subway systems.
uh-hmm
I am really curious about where those pictures went or where he was sending them in.
If any change coming out of that because
like we said a couple years ago.
When it comes to getting off the subway depends on where you are going.
I feel like a lot of places that are very touristy
Like for example, the thing like Co-Ex Mall
Yeah!
Were they like trying to funnel tourists?
They might have like ramps
or like smooth walkways or elevators
everywhere that are accessible.
But a lot of other places, it's like
Once you get outside of subway system
the roads are really on even.
Yup.
Kind of like cobble stoney or..
Hongdae, right here is totally not
tough
accessible at all for wheelchairs.
You also have to remember that Korea is pretty much built on a mountain.
Yes.
Everything is exceptionally hilly, all the buildings are really really dense and compact as well.
It's very difficult to get in and out of the way.
Even as a person who is not wheelchair-bound.
hm-hmm
A lot of the universities are on a hilltop.
Yonsei
Uh-uh
Ewha Women's
Seoul University is literally, on a mountain top.
Yup
So if you are on a wheelchair,
I mean you have take a car up to the top of that
because there’s no way for you to get there.
A lot of buildings in the shops also have a lot of stairs because
we said again, everything is built on a mountain
Vertical
And I barely seen any wheelchair-accessibility on there also
It’s kind of difficult because we have our own coffee shop
We try to make wheelchair-accessible as well.
but there are actual really strict laws about
the angle of the degree
If you want to make wheelchair accessible.
We try to make a ramp that would lead up the first two steps
Ya
and the other steps.
And then we said let’s just make
even if it’s a long ramp, like that’s okay.
Uh-uh
I want it to be accessible.
They were like the amount of space you have isn’t legally enough to make this, so that..
and I’m like..
What?
That being said,
a lot of the buildings that are built vertically they do have elevators in it.
Yes.
I mean, most buildings have elevators except Eat Your Kimchi studio!
Except for this studio!
We gotta climb four-storey stairs everyday!
That's right!
We do not have any kind of elevator.
But, majority of buildings do have it.
They can be quite narrow
But it’s not like they have a special elevators built feature wheelchair.
So it could be a problem there
but, I’m not sure.
When it comes to buses, let’s just say
I would not take a bus in Korea.
I remember, in Canada like at least in Pickering
The buses that they had would lower and then
They had hydraulics.
Ya, they had hydraulics.
I think they had much wider bus to get on
But in Korea, all the buses we seen have very steep stairs
and they are not accommodating whatsoever
the aisles are very cramped.
I just wouldn’t even think about it.
Buses are really difficult for anyone to get on to.
Okay, like I’ve seen little old ladies hobbling on the bus with their little tiny canes.
And a guy will just gun it.
This little old lady is like scrambling to grab a pole.
So I can’t imagine being accessible
whatsoever if you’re in a wheelchair
and on crutches just forget it.
Okay?
You are going to break another ankle.
Now, if you’re not going to take a subway or a bus
There is actually a government taxi you can call
that’s specially for wheelchairs.
Yes.
However, there is a bit of scandal with that recently.
Yes.
What happened was people who are wheelchair-bound were calling the taxi service
The taxi service kept saying that they are busy
"Oh, we’re fully booked that we can not actually do anything."
But then people started getting suspicious
Hmm-hmm
So they investigated and
they actually saw this taxi that’s made for the wheelchairs.
They went outside the building, looked at the actual taxi.
One of them called them and said,
Hey, can you pick me up?
They said, "Oh, we are fully booked."
BS
Your van is right there and nobody is in it.
This was a bit of scandal because this is a "government run free-service"
It wasn’t like a taxi that just didn’t want to make money.
And so, why is the person not coming to pick people up?
Because they got the government money, they didn’t want to do any work afterwards.
Yes, so I hope that has changed by now.
When it comes to handicap parking,
There are handicapped parking spots in Korea.
Not everywhere when it comes to like Hongdae or busy parts of Gangnam
Forget about it cause there is no parking anywhere.
People just park on sidewalks.
It is sooooo difficult to find parking
So maybe taxi dropping you off is the way to go
But if you go to Home Plus or these like grocery store chains.
hmm-hmm
Or if you go to the mall, they will have spots that are marked for handicapped parking.
However,
A lot of people are using these handicapped parking spots like "temporary things."
Saying like, "Oh, I’m only gonna be here for five minutes."
"I’m picking this up."
And they just block up the handicapped parking spots rudely.
Yes. Now I know that in North America, that is a major
Yup.
Major faux pas that would get you like beat up.
Hmm-hmm
Like you’ve seen videos or read it
on that people like pull up in their Ferrari
and park side on the handicapped spot.
Teenagers or university students will come out
and like, keyed the car
All of the cars that I have looked at
that have been parked at handicapped spots,
I’ve never seen a single one with a handicapped permanent.
Ya, so maybe there is a special sticker we haven’t seen before.
But usually it should be quite clear that you could park there.
Supposedly, there’s also an issue because a lot of people that are abusing handicap system
are wealthier people and a lot of the tickets are automated.
So people would think of this as paying little bit of extra money to have a better parking.
When it comes to the washrooms
I actually have seen a lot of wheelchair accessible washrooms in Korea.
Yup.
They have their own washroom area that would be marked off for either parents with kids.
Yup.
Or if you are with a wheelchair that actually has like a sliding door
Uh-uh
It will have a special toilet and it will have handle bars.
Railings as well.
Yes.
It will have an emergency button you can press if anything happened.
Uh-hm
And that one is usually completely on its own.
Especially, in department stores.
Yup.
Which I think are more accessible.
Outside of that, I’ve seen in some subway stations
that will have like a larger stall available for you
to fit your actual wheelchair inside of.
I have seen some people using them like
if the stalls are in a rush
Ya
I think that happens in North America as well
hmm-hm
People just kind of like, "Oh, there is no one here."
"Oh, whateves."
But other than that I have seen washrooms that are better fit with bars and wider spaces.
We’re going to talk a little bit more about this on a blog posting
including our experiences when we were teaching at schools.
As well as how practical it is to move around in Korea.
Make sure you click on a link if you wanna read more about it.
This is just our perception.
I am sure that you might have different experiences as well.
So if you’ve been to Korea
and you have physical disability,
How accommodating did you find Korea?
I’m sure your experience is much different than ours.
So please let us know.
And for those of you outside of Korea
How accessible is your country?
Do they have those things we have discussed
Or do they have more? or is it better?
Is it worse?
Please let us know in the comment section below.
For last week's TL;DR on Korean ghost stories and how they can kill you.
We wanted to ask you about what the ghost stories are like in your country.
Ghost stories and how they can kill you?
Ya!
Cause ghosts can kill you.
Apparently.
We got a cool comment from buddy29943
Who said,
Do you guys believe in elves?
Because in Mexico there were stories of people who get kidnapped by elves!
And they are called "duendes"
It's in Spanish.
I didn't think elves kidnap people.
Did we pronounce it right?
Or is it pronounced do-when-day
Do-when-days
I thought elves were really pretty people who walk and hop on snow
and did things like
Nicholas!
I am pretty sure elves are like people that end up like
taking your underwear when you sleep at night.
I think those are people called, "blue shoes."
Aren’t they?
Nieida from Finland what up saying,
how they have something called, "etiäinen"
I am just going to pronounce it as Italian.
Italian!
They have Italians in Finland.
Pretty much your doppelgangers
and what they do is that they wind up doing exactly
what you are going to do.
A little bit ahead of you.
So that they are kind of like your silhouette
They will arrive at your home before you do
go to the washroom and then your come in and do the exact same thing.
Also known as as a glitch in the Matrix.
That’s really weird.
That’s really creepy!
That’s almost creepier than a ghost.
Because they could take over your life
and go out with your husband or your wife
or charm your friends.
But actually... what's their end bolt?
hmm-hmm
Kill you? Replace you?
Those damn Italians!