In commemoration of the National Day of Persons with Disabilities on April 20th, the Humanities and Social Sciences Campus of Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) introduced a vehicle with an installed a wheelchair ramp to support disabled students.
The test drive took place on April 16th, and was officially introduced on April 22nd. After trial runs in the first semester, the service will be expanded gradually. Song Hae-ryong, a Professor from the Department of Media Communication at SKKU, made a donation for the vehicle. As Professor Song previously worked as Dean of Students Affairs Division, he has continuously cared about the difficulties that disabled students face at the school. The vehicle will operate on the campus from 9 AM to 6 PM. As the Humanities and Social Sciences Campus has steep slopes, disabled students who use wheelchairs have had difficulties moving from one building to another. Also, a low floor bus has not been introduced due to the risk of a collision with the underbody of the bus because of the steep roads and speed bumps. Therefore, disabled students using wheelchairs have used personal vehicles or got help from student assistants so far. The introduction of the vehicles for disabled students from this semester, however, is expected to improve the mobility of the disabled students on the campus. The students who participated in the test drive showed a positive reaction. However, they also expressed their wish that the vehicle was larger. As a first trial, they hope the school will introduce more vehicles with larger capacities, in the near future.