Visually impaired residents in Seodaemun-gu will now be able to obtain official documents on their own by following voice prompts, while wheelchair users can adjust the screen to their eye level — all without assistance from another person.
Seodaemun-gu, led by District Mayor Park Un-gi, announced Tuesday that it has fully upgraded all 17 unmanned civil-service kiosks at the district's 14 neighborhood community centers and civic halls with barrier-free features, aimed at improving administrative service access for residents with visual, hearing and physical disabilities.
The kiosks allow residents to obtain up to 123 types of official documents — including resident registration certificates and family relation certificates — without visiting a counter in person, making them a widely used everyday administrative service.
The machines handle more than 240,000 transactions a year, or about 60 per kiosk per day, but had previously posed barriers for users with disabilities.
The district applied barrier-free features so that people with disabilities can obtain documents without relying on others for help.
The new features include voice guidance for visually impaired users, earphone audio support, braille keypads, visually oriented guidance for hearing-impaired users, an adjustable screen height and lower touch panel for wheelchair users, and repositioned coin and bill slots.
The district said it expects the upgrades to make the kiosks more convenient not only for people with disabilities but also for elderly residents and those less familiar with digital devices.
"Digital transformation is not about adding technology — it is about lowering the threshold so that everyone can enjoy the same administrative services," District Mayor Park said. "We will continue to expand people-centered digital administration that all residents can use without discrimination."
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