HOME
>
Main Activities
>
Press Releases
Press Releases
프린트
SNS URL 공유하기 레이어 열기
NHRCK Holds Discussion on Training Professional Walking Instructors for the Visually Impaired
Date : 2006.10.30 00:00:00
Hits : 991
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) held a discussion session on rehabilitation to ensure walking safety and the right to move of the visually impaired. Experts and visually-impaired persons were in attendance at the Oct.13 meeting to discuss ways to conduct scientific walking training and to train professional walking instructors.
Walking instructors for the visually impaired are professional trainers who teach visually impaired people how to identify their location in a given environment, maintain their orientation in that environment, and move in a safe manner. In the U.S., the first walking instructor training program was offered at Boston College in 1960. With assistance from the U.S., Japan introduced a similar program in 1965. Taiwan, in cooperation with Western Michigan University in the U.S, began offering such a program at Taiwan Normal University in 1991.
According to estimates, there are more than 180,000 visually impaired people in the Republic of Korea. Only a small number of them can walk on their own and come and go freely. There have been accidents where persons with visual impairment have fallen onto the subway tracks, dramatically highlighting the need for systematic training that they may safely walk unassisted. Advanced countries that provide high-quality social services have been training walking instructors, who require a high level of professionalism. In the Republic of Korea, there is no specialized organization for training of walking instructors who can effectively train the visually-impaired and give them the kind of personalized instruction that they require.
In August 2006, the Korean government declared in its " comprehensive plans to support the disabled" that it would streamline the classification of rehabilitation assistance devices, revamp quality control systems, overhaul the system for qualifying professional rehabilitation assistants including issuance of national certificates to speech therapists and audiologists, and press for legislation galvanizing assistive technology services.
