• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.399-425
• /
• 2009

This study aims to conceptualize 'perceived disability discrimination', to evaluate the coverage of Korea's Disability Discrimination Act from the perspective of perceived discrimination, and to discuss the possibility of legal judgement on the perceived disability discrimination. As a general concept, it is the perceived discrimination that people with disabilities feel or experience any type of discrimination based on stigma, disability oppression, prejudice, or stereotype. The Korea's Disability Discrimination Act does not consider some perceived discrimination as a subject of legal judgement. Although indirect discrimination is a very good content to correct wrong social rules, values, institutions, actually, it is confronted with being remained useless. Perceived disability discrimination such as strangers' staring or benevolent disability discrimination are not included in the coverage of Korea's Disability Discrimination Act. The disability discrimination experienced by family members who has a disabled member was not a matter of current Korea's Disability Discrimination Act. Considering perceived disability discrimination, coverage of Korea's Disability Discrimination Act should be extended to the concept of discrimination against disability, not against people with disability. Based on the concept of indirect discrimination, social rules and institutions should be examined if they are discriminative or not in dealing with the matters of people with disabilities. Also, for judging perceived disability discrimination, it is necessary to use 'the standard of reasonable people with disability', which comes from judgement standard of sexual harassments. The reality of oppressive ideology against disability should be socially accepted and the social reconstruction for people with disabilities should go on.