The meaning and importance of jobs for the disabled

  While it may happen that a disabled student completes all their academic courses in primary, middle, and high school and is then so severely disabled that they go to a welfare facility, finding their own job, showcasing their abilities, and realizing their dreams is more important than anything else. Additionally, the independence of disabled individuals affects not only themselves but also the quality of life of their families.

  Through this interview, we aim to shed light on the meaning and importance of jobs for the disabled by presenting actual cases and discussing what families can do during the educational process to help disabled students adapt well to society.

  Kim Hyun-jong, head of the Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled, stated that the meaning and importance of jobs for the disabled are not merely statistical figures representing the creation of one job for the disabled, who make up about 5% of the approximately 2.6 million disabled people in our country. Instead, he sees it as a miraculous opportunity that can provide tremendous value to at least 10 other citizens, including their parents, families, and siblings who live alongside them.

  Manager Kim Hyun-jong from the Social Value Innovation Growth Center under the Ministry of Employment and Labor has a disabled sibling. He spoke through an interview about the actual experiences he faced as a family of a disabled person and the meaning of jobs for the disabled.

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◆Part-time job experience

  One day my younger sibling came to me and said they felt they needed to study after wandering aimlessly for over 2 or 3 years. Before saying that, they got a part-time job, and their face looked quite scary. They had ended up losing their ears and had undergone 24 surgeries on their face. So I asked, how did you work part-time? Where did you work part-time? They said they were serving at a traditional bar. When I went to see how they were handling the service industry, they were serving in a very friendly manner, which was completely different from how they handled it with family. I thought it would last at most a week, but they worked there for 8 months. By the time their part-time job was ending, my younger sibling was attending university and still went to work even though they didn’t go to school. The part-time boss was unwell, so they actually carried out the shopping in the early morning, managed all the operations, did the accounting, closed the store, and returned home, essentially working almost like a boss, my sibling actively spoke about their part-time job.

◆Changes in my younger sibling after the part-time job

  Then one day they came to me and said, “Hyung, I need to take the transfer exam to a four-year university.” They thought they needed to attend a four-year school, saying, “I can’t live like this my whole life.” Since then, they completed their master’s and doctorate degrees, and now they have successfully established their own business. Looking back, my youngest sibling, at that time, looked frightening even to me because of their burns. However, their life changed because of that boss who gave them a part-time job, specifically a serving position. The experience of being recognized by someone, being compensated for their work, and having the responsibility of managing the store became an enormous turning point in my sibling’s life. I am still very grateful for that situation and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to work along with the significant changes in my sibling’s life.

◆The meaning and importance of jobs for people with disabilities

  Ending with the story of our youngest regarding jobs for people with disabilities, it is a miraculous event that can change the lives of at least ten other citizens, including my family, my sister’s family, my youngest’s family, and my parents, when a job is created for one disabled person. Jobs for people with disabilities are that important. The fact that people with disabilities become social and economic subjects is not just about the fact that there are around 2.6 million disabled people in our country’s population, which is only about 5%, and statistically considering it as just having created a job for them. I believe it is a miraculous event that can bring tremendous value to at least ten other citizens, including their families and siblings living together. In particular, for those engaged in the arts, for severely disabled individuals who can only do art, continuing artistic activities itself becomes a job, and when they become social and economic subjects through that, not only the artist but also other citizens witnessing the artist’s works, and all the parents and siblings who nurtured that artist can feel the change in life together. Therefore, providing jobs for severely disabled people in the field of art and enabling them to work stably is considered more valuable than anything else. He also mentioned the importance of ensuring that artistic activities can become jobs for severely disabled individuals.

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*Please note this is a Korean article

Source: Culture Times