2022.07.26 10:54
Korean attorney Kim Ye-won, often compared to the hit drama character Woo Young-woo, has turned personal hardship into a career defending disabled victims. Born with vision loss from a medical accident, she worked at a major law firm’s public foundation before leaving to provide frontline legal help. In 2017 she founded the Disability Rights Law Center to offer early, on-the-ground intervention and free legal representation to people with disabilities who face extreme abuse and neglect.
Kim’s pro bono practice has handled harrowing cases — developmental disabled people subjected to sexual exploitation by neighbors or family, long-term labor trafficking, and victims rescued from unregistered facilities. She emphasizes early intervention and basic stability: securing safe housing and psychological support so survivors can begin to speak about abuse and pursue justice. Kim combines legal advocacy with direct care, sometimes inviting traumatized clients to her home to help them regain trust and safety, and she supports her work through speaking, writing, and commissioned research.
Beyond individual cases, Kim has influenced policy and public awareness: she led changes improving web accessibility for visually impaired users and helped open access to class-1 driving tests for people with visual impairments, earning official commendations and the inaugural Kwak Jeong-sook human rights award. She has served on multiple government and civic human-rights committees and defends disability movements calling for mobility rights. Her own experiences with school bullying and prejudice inform a pragmatic, survivor-centered approach that blends legal action with concrete supports to restore dignity and autonomy to disabled people.
Original source: 전교 왕따·시각장애 여중생, ‘현실판 우영우’로…그를 바꾼 ‘1진들’ (Source: the news outlet; please refer to the original article.)
