장애인스포츠 바우처According to the Seoul Olympic Sports Promotion Foundation and the Korea Sports Association for the Disabled on the 13th, the total number of disabled people who were issued Shinhan Cards, which are vouchers for sports classes for the disabled, in 17 cities and provinces across the country as of last year was 19,262. Of these, the number of people who attended and used the course was 12,104 (62.8%). Four out of 10 people were unable to attend sports classes.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism provides support of up to 95,000 won per month to enable people with disabilities to choose from a variety of classes, including kendo, swimming, and basketball, with the goal of revitalizing sports for people with disabilities. After starting in 2019 as a pilot project to support 5,100 low-income disabled people aged 12 to 39, the scope has now been significantly expanded to also support disabled people aged 19 to 64 and their guardians, regardless of income. The budget, which was 2.4 billion won per year, also increased to 5.4 billion won last year with the goal of supporting 10,000 people nationwide.
Although the size has more than doubled, the usage rate is not keeping up. During the pilot project period in 2019, 672 out of 1,236 disabled people who were issued cards participated, resulting in a usage rate of 54.4%. However, in 2020, when the COVID-19 incident began, 1,309 out of 2,607 people enrolled, dropping to 50.2%. . Then, in 2021, the number of users was 3,341 out of 5,650, or 59.1%, and last year, the number of users was 6,782, or 69.4% of 9,769. There is still a gap between the demand for and actual use of sports for the disabled.
The corporation cites the lack of sports infrastructure as the biggest problem. The reason is the overall lack of facilities, courses, and guidance personnel for people with disabilities. At the time of the pilot project in 2019, the number of sports facility franchises where disabled people could take sports classes was 851 across the country, but the number only increased to 1,151 by last year. On the other hand, as of last year, the number of businesses registered as sports facility businesses nationwide reached 57,380.
There are also differences due to differences in sports infrastructure by region. In the case of Sejong, it can only be used at 5 affiliated stores corresponding to 4 sports, including badminton, swimming, soccer, and table tennis, while in Seoul, it can be used at 159 affiliated stores in 17 sports. In addition to common sports such as fitness (35 locations) and taekwondo (19 locations), it can be used in dance (3 locations), ballet (1 location), and roller inline (1 location). Likewise, unlike Gyeonggi, which has 271 franchises in 22 sports, Gangwon has only 10 sports and 42 franchises.
Mr. A, a family member of an intellectually disabled person living in Busan, said, “In fact, the only facility available in the vicinity is a gym, but the facilities I wanted to use had significant restrictions, such as being far away or having limited usage hours. “Even if you try to learn exercise separately on the weekend, there are many places that charge additional fees,” he said. “There are limits to the business that was thought of as welfare.” “I learned the expedient method of registering first (even if you don’t take the course right away),” he said.
The poor sports infrastructure for the disabled is easily confirmed in the results of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s survey. Of the 1.59 million registered home-based disabled people aged 10 to 69 who responded to last year’s survey on living and sports for the disabled, 83.3% responded, “I do not use sports facilities.” The biggest reason for not using it was ‘because it is difficult to exercise alone’ with a response rate of 28.6%, followed by ‘because of lack of time (14.2%)’, ‘because of the distance (12.9%)’, and ‘lack of information (12.7%)’. It appeared.
In fact, people with disabilities are feeling the lack of overall sports infrastructure that can be used more conveniently. They responded that ‘cost support (33.6%)’ is most needed to revitalize sports for people with disabilities, followed by ‘Sports programs for the disabled (17.2%)’ %)’ and ‘Accommodation for the disabled in sports facilities (15.2%)’ were also selected.
Meanwhile, the Corporation has set a goal of doubling the size of available sports facilities this year in order to expand the base of its sports classes for the disabled. Additionally, it was decided to introduce and expand physical education classes for the disabled that can be taken online regardless of physical conditions.
