Kim Chouel-man, a track and field athlete with a brain lesion with disability level 1, has won two bronze medals at the National Spinal Cord Disabled Sports Festival. He is leading Team Honn, a track and field team consisting of some 10 atheletes with severe brain lesions at Good Playground Korea, a sports facility for disabled persons in Seongdong-gu, Seoul.

However, he says that he often feels restricted in his training due to the lack of accessible sports facilities in Korea.

"I enjoy feeling the strength in my body improve while exercising," Kim said. "But it is often limited as my movements are not the same as people without disabilities as my legs are in a wheelchair."

Kim says that there are only a handful of sports facilities in Korea that are specifically designed for people with disabilities. And even those facilities often lack the necessary equipment and resources to meet the needs of all disabled athletes.

"I think there should be special equipment or programs that allow you to do exercises according to your disability," Kim said.

Korea is not a very friendly country when it comes to access to sports facilities for the disabled. 

According to data from the Korea Paralympic Committee (KPC), the nation had 73 sports facilities for disabled people across the country with eight located in Seoul as of October 2022. Most of them are run either by the local government, a sports association, or a charity. 

Only 26% of registered disabled persons exercise regularly

As of the end of 2022, Korea had 2,653,000 registered disabled people according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), where those with physical disabilities including arm, leg, and spine disorders accounted for 44.3 percent, followed by 16 percent with hearing disabilities, 9.5 percent with vision defects, 9.3 percent with brain lesions and 8.5 percent with intellectual disabilities.

With Korea’s high beauty standards, gyms have exponentially grown in number but not as quickly for the disabled. 

Disabled persons need regular exercise as they are three times more likely to suffer from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, or cancer than adults without disabilities but nearly half of this population do not engage in physical activity, said a CDC report. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) also recommends 150 minutes of medium-intensity exercise, including fast walking or fast wheelchair pushing for a healthy life without disease. 

However, the 2022 survey from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) showed that only 26.6 percent of people registered with disabilities regularly exercised more than twice a week for more than 30 minutes per session.

The Bandabi Sports Center's legacy 

Fortunately, the lack of facilities has not gone unnoticed. After the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Paralympic Games, the government and the KPC announced a plan to revitalize sports for people with disabilities as a legacy project of the winter games. 

Accordingly, the project outlines plans to establish 150 accessible sports facilities called the “Bandabi Sports Centers,” where disabled and non-disabled people can enjoy sports together. 

Additionally, the program offers vouchers for sports classes for disabled persons and the deployment of 1,200 physical education instructors for people with disabilities.

A spokesperson from the KPC provided an update concerning this legacy project.

The first Bandabi Sports Center opened last year in August in Gwangju and more will soon be built in other cities and districts, according to the KPC.

“Currently, 77 Bandabi Sports Centers across the country have received support for construction and the number will increase to 150 by 2027 with further budget allocations,” the KPC spokesperson said.

The Gwangju Center is certified as a barrier-free facility with a swimming pool equipped with an auxiliary ramp for the disabled, and a gym where disabled sports such as boccia and badminton can be held.

In Incheon, the Bandabi Sports Center is to be built by 2026 and a voucher program for sports lectures for people with disabilities is already underway, the official added. 

Virtual reality to increase the physical activity of the disabled

Although Korea is trying to develop more facilities to increase access, this alone might not be the answer. 

The MCST survey showed that despite a slight increase in awareness of disabled sports facilities around their neighborhoods, this made little difference in the utilization of these facilities as 85.3 percent reported not using them.

However, sports facilities are not the only option for exercise. The survey showed that walking hiking trails or parks was the most preferred way to exercise among the disabled respondents, followed by visiting a sports facility and then home training.

Another issue that can act as a barrier to access is the sports fees as personal trainers (PT) for the gym or first-time learning of any sport can be quite costly ranging from approximately 170,000 won (around $129) to 360,000 per month depending on the sport. 

The survey respondents said subsidized fees, a well-developed sports program for the disabled, and expanding convenient sports facilities and exercise equipment for the disabled would be the most effective ways to encourage exercise.

In March, the Incheon Para Sports Association opened a virtual reality sports center occupying 618.44 square meters to help engage more people with disabilities in exercise. 

The center is equipped with 10 types of equipment, including extended reality (XR) sports, augmented reality (AR) action floor, 3D motion play, and virtual reality (VR) bikes.

Additionally, Incheon City is also renovating a soccer field and golf course for the visually impaired.

How exactly do gyms for the disabled differ?

As there are abundant gyms in Korea, integrating equipment for the disabled at gyms might be a solution to increase access. However, this might not be feasible since these gyms also require special equipment, fitness trainers, and consultations to place disabled persons into a suitable program. 

For this reason, public gyms might be skeptical to accept clients with disabilities as it can be difficult for a disabled person to use the same facility depending on their disability level, which emphasizes the need for the Bandabi Centers.

Currently, some of the most common rehabilitation activities offered by existing sports facilities specialized for disabled persons in Korea are aqua walking, swimming classes, aqua aerobics, and more.

Non-rehabilitative exercises include personal training (PT) gym sessions with trainers, Bitelli smart indoor bikes for visual, developmental, and physical disabilities, art therapy for teenagers, skating, futsal, and basketball.