Career    

PR/IR

News

News

[News] [Arirang] What are ways to promote inclusion for everyone to enjoy a cultural life?
Date
2024.11.13 00:00

Creating. an inclusive social environment also means lowering barriers to cultural entertainment for people with disabilities.
And our Ahn Sung-jin has more on such efforts in this report.
"The lower body of a girl in a black skirt is running while a black cat is running alongside her."
This graphics pad helps Go Mi-suk read comics.
For the visually impaired, imagination is needed to interpret images.
Some books are offered in braille or through voice text, but this can miss out on the non-textual aspects.
"Braille is not enough and for audio narration, the character varies too much depending on the narrator."
That's where these interactive devices come into place.
This is the world's first smart tactile graphics display.
It was created through a project from the Korea Creative Content Agency LA.
The display works by providing solutions to reduce information discrepancy.
For example, with webtoons, it recreates comics as graphics.
It also has a text-to-braille panel on the bottom for details that are not illustrated.
"I try to focus on eliminating the unnecessary components to reduce any confusion. It's sometimes difficult to express exactly what we see through tactile display."

"I think what's important is that the information gap between the visually impaired and those that aren't is reduced. The key for barrier-free is keeping the original content as much as possible but also simplifying it." Movies are another area where barriers must be removed so that everyone can enjoy content. " If so, why not head to this barrier-free film festival where narrations are both spoken and written throughout the entire movie to allow viewers to have a better understanding of what they are watching?" The 2024 Seoul Barrier Free Film Festival screened nearly 40 movies. Hosted by the Korean Barrier Free Films committee, it works on producing, distributing and screening barrier free films. "It's not about making something for the disabled, barrier free is something that everyone can enjoy. Just like making subtitles for movies that we export, audio description or subtitles for the deaf should be essential." Moving forward, all of those in the field have emphasized the need for more IT devices that can provide these contents. "If those in the movie industry can have more interest in a barrier-free environment, we would be able to have the same experience as others. Especially establishing more systematic efforts for devices that can play barrier-free movies." Through those efforts, hopefully in the future, everyone will be able to enjoy the latest blockbuster without barriers.

Ahn Sung-jin, Arirang News.