Jang Hye-young



Jang Hye-young (장혜영) is a disability human rights activist and social democratic politician in South Korea. She is known as a disability human rights activist, but in fact she is considered a very "radical" figure in South Korea despite her very "moderate" view by Western world standards. She has committed herself to the Talsiseol Movement and other disabled rights movements. She has also served as a member of the center-left Justice Party in the South Korean parliament since May 2020.

Talsiseol movement
She leads the Talsiseol Movement (탈시설 운동). Talsiseol Movement ("deinstitutionalization movement") is a movement to "break away from disabilty facilities" that helps disabled people live independently without locking them in such facilities. (Many disabled people in South Korea are forced to live in a uniform group of people separated from their local communities and locked in closed residential facilities for the disabled.) In South Korea, the Talsiseol movement is criticized by not a few people in South Korea for being radical.

Proposed anti-discrimination law (2020)
She proposed the anti-discrimination law on June 29, 2020, along with 10 fellow lawmakers. The anti-discrimination law is a law against discrimination by gender, religion, race, gender identity, etc. . However, the anti-discrimination law was defeated due to opposition from conservatives in South Korea against LGBT rights.

Criticism
Though she is known as a disability human rights activist, but it should be taken into account that South Korean society is very socially conservative in the issue of disability rights.

She expressed her support for the Light It Up Blue campaign on Twitter in 2019 that was sponsored by Autism Speaks. The mainstream disabled human rights movement in South Korea is not discussing neurodiversity with ARM at all.

She made no mention of the "Missing Children Act" (실종아동법) amendment proposed by the South Korean parliament in June 2021 despite serious human rights violations. (Of course, it was never mentioned in the South Korea's liberal and left-wing press. South Korea is conservative on human rights issues for the disabled, regardless of left and right.) If the amendment to the Missing Children Act of June 2021 is passed, it will be possible to install a location tracking device for disabled people only on request from a guardian without consent of the disabled person. The bill was criticized by five disability groups, including 3Ocean (세바다).