On April 5, the opening of the FEST IX Week of Professional Orientation and Integration took place, which was accompanied by the International Seminar “Policies and Rights of People with Disabilities in South Korea and Spain: keys for application in the work environment” where the topic of people with disabilities in both South Korea and Spain was discussed. The conference was divided into two parts: first, Professor Lee Dongsuk, professor at Daegu University and former president of the Korea Society for Disability Studies, began by talking about how society responds to people with disabilities and in what direction state policies should go. Currently, people with disabilities have to adapt to society and he mentioned how society must improve in these aspects to create an inclusive society in both South Korea and Spain. He also demonstrated the importance of politics in solving the problems faced by these people in their daily lives.

The second part was given by Professor Cho Moonsoon, Professor at Yeungnam University College and Vice President of the Korean Society for Disabilities Studies, who researches supported housing and the arts for people with disabilities and focuses on the community life of this group. Her lecture, “UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Comparison of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ Recommendations to Korea and Spain,” focused on the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and how it is the case between South Korea and Spain. She compared both countries commenting on their similarity and indicated that both should make institutional improvements for this group of people. The conference ended with a question and answer session on this topic.

This activity was organized within the Korean Ministry of Education project “Path to Equality: Korean Studies Network on inclusiveness” (AKS-2021-INC-2250002).