Translation result.
Seo Yeong-hak, the Democratic Party candidate for mayor of Yeosu, said the passage of the Disability Rights Guarantee Act should prompt a shift in the city’s welfare policies.
Seo said the new law can reorient disability policy around a rights-based framework instead of a patchwork of services. “This legislation is significant because it consolidates scattered disability laws and policies under the broad rubric of ‘rights protection’ and clarifies the fundamental direction of disability policy,” he said. “By recognizing mobility, education, employment, culture, access to information, independent living, and social participation as basic citizens’ rights—not as isolated support programs—the law changes our society’s perspective as well as policy.”
Calls for Yeosu to join personal budget pilot program
He also urged Yeosu to participate in the central government’s pilot of a personal budget program for people with disabilities. “The Lee Jae-myung administration is piloting an expanded personal-budget program for people with disabilities, and Yeosu should take a leading role,” Seo said. “I will promote Yeosu-style, demand-responsive welfare services that align with the central government’s user-centered welfare approach.”
The personal budget program allows individuals to directly manage part of existing vouchers, expanding their choice of services and aiming to shift welfare toward a user-centered model. Local participation and the pace of any expansion will depend on the central government’s rollout schedule.
Seo noted that some parts of South Jeolla Province were chosen as pilot sites and called for action to close regional disparities. “Although Gwangyang, Damyang and Yeongam in South Jeolla were selected as pilot sites this year, Yeosu — the hub of the province’s eastern region — remains excluded,” he said. “We must swiftly address Yeosu falling behind in the Lee administration’s core disability-rights policy.”
He added that joining the government pilot is about more than securing national funding; it’s about adapting the Lee administration’s welfare philosophy to Yeosu’s local context. Turning those principles into tangible policies that residents can feel is the city government’s primary responsibility.
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