The Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI) invited Prof. Sang-Muk Lee and  held the 2nd KISDI policy seminar (or ITU-D Workshop) 'QoLT Project to Enhance the Social and Economic Status of the Disabled' on June 19, 2012. Dr. Lee is an Earth and Environmental Science professor at Seoul National University and a head of 'QoLT Center Project'.

Prof. Lee said "We need to move further from the development of ICT convergence technologies 'for the disabled' toward 'by the disabled', putting more emphasis on the involvement of the disabled," and briefly introduced the activities of QoLT Center.

'QoLT Center Project', sponsored by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, consists of 7 technology development projects and 1 infrastructure building project, scheduled from June 1, 2010 to May 31, 2014. Many institutions and agencies have been participating in this project including IT training for the disabled, infrastructure building for industrial technology education for the disabled, development of voice word processor and voice recognition S/W for the mentally retarded, and development of universal SW infrastructure and devices for the access of the disabled.

Prof. Lee graduated from Seoul National University with B.A. in Marin Geology and received his PhD in Oceanography from MIT. He has been teaching Earth and Environmental Science at SNU since 2003, and became paralyzed due to a car accident during his 2006 geological survey in US. He came back to work with the help of IT technologies and is now enthusiastically engaging himself in rehabilitation and welfare of the disabled.

This policy seminar was attended by researchers of International Cooperation Research Division and members of Korea ITU Committee and offered in-depth discussions on related issues. Korea's efforts are expected to be introduced to ITU-D and WSIS as ITU regards 'ICT access of the disabled' more seriously.

Contact: Researcher Ae-Yeon Kim of International Cooperation Research Division (Tel. 02-570-4348)