Hancom said on March 9 it signed a business agreement with the National Library for the Disabled to expand access to information in publications issued by public institutions for people with disabilities.

Under the agreement, Hancom will develop a PDF creation function with improved accessibility and add it to Hanword (2024 version). The National Library for the Disabled will support and verify public institutions that publish periodicals so they produce PDFs with improved accessibility, and it will pursue institutional improvements.

The National Library for the Disabled has promoted projects to produce alternative materials for people with disabilities not only from about 50,000 public-institution publications produced each year, but also from academic papers and theses written in Korean. Because accessibility had to be added afterward to already converted PDFs, the work was less efficient in terms of time, difficulty and budget, leaving annual production of alternative materials for people with disabilities at only about 15,000 items.

Under the agreement, Hancom plans to add an accessibility function that supports the international standard PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility) from the PDF conversion stage to Hanword (2024 version) by the fourth quarter of this year. The company expects the move to contribute to improving access to information for people with disabilities.

Hancom Group Vice Chairman Sung-joon Byun (변성준) said, "As Hancom has continuously worked to improve digital accessibility for people with disabilities, I am glad that, through consultation and cooperation with the National Library for the Disabled, we can further increase access to information for people with disabilities." He added, "We will also take the lead in fulfilling our corporate social responsibility so that Hancom's 36 years of technological capabilities can be used more valuably in society."