SK Telecom is leading an initiative to make it easy for vision-impaired students to learn better. This is in partnership with the “Smart Learning” project led by the Ministry of Education & Science Technology. On April 19, the company held an experimental class for the hearing-impaired at Kuksabong Middle School in Seoul, jointly with the ministry and Samsung Electronics.

Through the use of computers in a remote location, the instructor’s voice was turned into text and sign-language information before reaching the hearing-impaired students. The students could also ask questions by writing the question on their tablet PC, which was then transformed into voice messages for the instructor to hear.

In addition to supporting vision- and hearing-impaired children, SK Telecom is also active in developing tools such as video-learning technology and applications for those with different disabilities, including those hospitalized or housebound. Kim Jung-Soo, the CSR manager of SK Telecom, said, “We will keep working on helping students with disabilities by developing new technologies and applications while providing more opportunities for them by introducing preferred hiring schemes.”

Sam Kim (press@whowired.com)