A blind person reading a book printed in braille in this file photo provided by the King Sejong Institute Foundation.
SEOUL, April 20 (Korea Bizwire) — One in three parents with disabled children faced substantial financial struggles to take care of their children and fill the education vacuum caused by COVID-19 when schools were temporarily closed, a survey showed Wednesday.
According to the survey of 4,785 parents with disabled children, 34 percent of them faced a “considerable rise” in the financial burden to take additional measures in caring for their child during the pandemic, Ewha Womans University-Industry Collaboration Foundation said.
Another 26.2 percent of the respondents said the financial burden “rose more or less.”
The survey also revealed that 28.3 percent of the respondents faced a “considerable rise” in the financial burden to fill in the education vacuum caused by the pandemic, while 26 percent said the financial burden “rose more or less.”
Close to one-third of the respondents, at 30.3 percent, faced a “considerable rise” in the financial burden to fill in the non-educational vacuum caused by the pandemic, while 25 percent said the financial burden “rose more or less.”
The survey also showed that 57 percent of respondents said their disabled children were unable to understand what was being said in remote classes, while 55.4 percent said their children could not focus on them.
When it came to the most difficult tasks, 52.8 percent of respondents said that “real-time interaction and taking video courses” were the hardest, while 47.8 percent said they had the most trouble assisting their children with education at home.
In addition, the foundation conducted another survey of 2,459 special education instructors, of which 50.9 percent said disabled students could not understand what was being said in remote classes, and 56.3 percent said students could not focus on them.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
