Facilities for disabled mandatory next yr.

Beginning next April, government agencies and public institutions not equipped with convenient facilities for the disabled such as signs in Braille and wheelchairs ramps will face fines of up to 30 million won.

Local government agencies will also face the same fines if they fail to remove curbs between sidewalks and crosswalks and set up traffic signal devices for the hearing impaired. In addition, buses and call-taxies equipped with lifts for disabled people will begin operating in six major cities from next year.

The government agreed on the measures Wednesday in a meeting on improving the welfare of the disabled.

The meeting was held at the government complex in central Seoul, with ministers of 10 government agencies and representatives from the private sector attending.

Prime Minister Lee Han-Dong chaired the meeting and participants included Government Administration-Home Affairs Minister Choi In-Kee, Education Minister Lee Don-Hee, Health-Welfare Minister Choi Sun-Jung and Labor Minister Kim Ho-Jin.

In order to give disabled people more chances for higher education, the government decided to establish a national special-education college with a student quota of 780 in 12 departments in Pyongtaek, Kyonggi Province, by March 2002. It will also set up support centers for special education at each provincial and municipal educational office.

The government also worked out measures to activate organized sports by disabled people, including a plan to raise the pension for disabled athletes winning gold medals at international athletic events from the present 288,000 won per person to 600,000 won.

The government plans to offer subsidies to employers who observe the mandatory 2 percent employment quota for disabled people, while strengthening controls on the employment quota at public institutions.

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