Kim Ye-ji proposes a bill to guarantee the right to use Braille in celebration of the 100th anniversary of ‘Hunmaengjeongeum’

People Power Party lawmaker Kim Ye-ji announced on the 4th, marking the 100th anniversary of the promulgation of 'Hunmaengjeongeum', the Korean Braille version, that she proposed amendments to the Braille Act and the Anti-Discrimination Act against Persons with Disabilities to guarantee the right of visually impaired people to use Braille and express their opinions.

Rep. Kim, who is visually impaired, held a press conference at the National Assembly that day and said, "We must guarantee the right to write and express in Braille so that Braille can have practical effect as a text for two-way communication."

The amendment to the Braille Act includes provisions requiring public institutions, etc. to receive and process documents or materials written in Braille by visually impaired people in the same manner as documents or materials written in regular print.

The amendment to the Act on Prohibition of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities calls for new regulations to prevent visually impaired people from rejecting or restricting the use of Braille to write or submit documents or materials or express their opinions without justifiable grounds.

Cho Won-seok, a visually and hearing impaired person who attended the press conference, and director of the Center for Independent Living for the Disabled, urged the passage of the bill, saying, "Every time I visited a government office, the validity of documents written in Braille was not recognized, so I had to tell my personal information to my companion and ask him to handle the work on my behalf."

Hunmaengjeongeum is a Korean Braille created by Songam Park Doo-seong through research with his visually impaired students on November 4, 1926, during the Japanese colonial period.