SK Telecom Successfully Concludes 'Disabled Youth Coding Challenge'

98 Disabled Youth and 39 Teachers Nationwide Participate
Event Held Consistently for 23 Years Since 1999

Teenagers participating in the 'Coding Challenge' are solving various problems and completing tasks.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] SK Telecom announced on the 27th that 98 disabled youth and 39 teachers from 29 special schools nationwide participated in the '2022 SKT Disabled Youth Coding Challenge' (hereinafter 2022 Coding Challenge), held jointly with the Korea Federation of Organizations of the Disabled over two days from the 24th to the 25th.

Since 1999, SKT has been hosting events to support disabled youth in developing their information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities, marking its 23rd year this year. The '2022 Coding Challenge' is an event where disabled youth compete in coding skills, and this time it was held over a one-night, two-day schedule at the SKT Talent Development Center located in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province.

As a preliminary process for the competition, participants created original content videos titled 'What Coding Means to Me,' and on the first day of the event, the 24th, they enjoyed a mini-Olympics and recreation activities such as soccer, table tennis, bowling, and billiards, providing time for interaction among the participating youth.

The IT challenge held on the 25th consisted of a 'Social Network Challenge' with all participants paired in teams of two, a 'Mission Challenge' for intellectually disabled youth also in teams of two, and a 'Best Challenge' for youth with disabilities other than intellectual disabilities.

Each challenge program involved various missions based on coding, such as turning on and off lights of different colors using magnetic coding or delivering relief supplies to children in impoverished countries around the world using the SKT Albert robot.

Meanwhile, since 2019, SKT has maintained steady interest in ICT education for disabled youth by operating the 'Happy Coding School' in over 130 special schools nationwide.

'Happy Coding School' is a software education program developed for disabled youth, with 14 types of programs tailored to different disability types, providing software education to over 1,300 students cumulatively to date.