• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.38-53
• /
• 2012

The transition process of the Balhae's capital system(都城制度) is a step-by-step marker of the completion of the state's governing system(支配體制). The most important subject in investigating the formation process of the capital of Balhae is Shanggyeongsheng(上京城). That's because Shanggyeongsheng(上京城) with a threefold-castle structure(三重城) of royal palace(宮城)-internal castle(內城)-external castle(外城) in the side-to-side checkerboard type symmetrical structure has the most paradigmatic castle structure not only in Balhae but also in East Asia. Despite the fact that such structure of Shanggyeongsheng(上京城) has a lot of similarities in the type with Sudangchangansheng(上京城) in Chungwon, scholars were skeptical that it had the same structure with Sudangchangansheng(上京城) at the time when transferring the capital. If we review the result of excavation of Shanggyeongsheng(上京城) and the findings of the senior scholars, it can be understood that Shanggyeongsheng(上京城) has not only the structure of Sudangchangansheng(上京城) but also accepted the principle of construction projected in it. It was confirmed that there is room for reconsideration on the theory of step-by-step construction(段階別築造) which was claimed based on the point that the construction like today's construction was impossible with the level of national power at that time in that the layers whose difference in construction time between the place No. 2, the central point of the royal palace, and the palaces No. 3~5 could be found were not identified, in that the whole Shanggyeongsheng(上京城) was planned by the same standard scale and finally in that there is a good possibility of accepting Samjoje(三朝制). The Shanggyeongsheng(上京城) is the result of the construction conducted by careful planning from the beginning, and with its close relation with the King Mun's(文王) policy of civilian government(文治), it shows that the governing system of the state was completed during the reign of King Mun. Therefore, the construction of the capital and the principle of construction(造營原理) projected in it are based on the premise that the Chungwon culture(中原文化) was being understood to a considerable level, and this means that the view of the world(天下觀) that he wanted to implement expanded throughout the whole Balhae.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.31
• /
• pp.27-56
• /
• 2006

Today's financial institutions usually take environmental issues seriously into consideration as they could not evade lender liability in an increasing number of cases. On the international scene, a brand-new concept of the "Equator Principles" in the New Millenium has driven more and more international banks to adopt these Principles in project financing. Sustainable development has been a key word in understanding new trends of the governments, financial institutions, corporations and civic groups in the 21st century. The Equator Principles are a set of voluntary environmental and social guidelines for sustainable finance. These Principles commit bank officers to avoid financial support to projects that fail to meet these guidelines. The Principles were conceived in 2002 on an initiative of the International Finance Corporation(IFC), and launched in June 2003. Since then, dozens of major banks, accounting for up to 80 percent of project loan market, have adopted the Principles. Accordingly, the Principles have become the de facto standard for all banks and investors on how to deal with potential social and environmental issues of projects to be financed. Compliance with the Equator Principles facilitates for endorsing banks to participate in the syndicated loan and help them to manage the risks associated with large-scale projects. The Equator Principles call for financial institutions to provide loans to projects under the following circumstances: - The risk of the project is categorized in accordance with internal guidelines based upon the environmental and social screening criteria of the IFC. - For Category A and B projects, borrowers or sponsors are required to conduct a Social and Environmental Assessment, the preparation of which must meet certain requirements and satisfactorily address key social and environmental issues. - The Social and Environmental Assessment report should address baseline social and environmental conditions, requirements under host country laws and regulations, sustainable development, and, as appropriate, IFC's Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines, etc. - Based on the Social and Environmental Assessment, Equator banks then make agreements with borrowers on how they mitigate, monitor and manage the risks through a Social and Environmental Management System. Compliance with the plan is included in the covenant clause of loan agreements. If the borrower doesn't comply with the agreed terms, the bank will take corrective actions. The Equator Principles are not a mere declaration of cautious banks but a full commitment of lenders. A violation of the Principles in the process of project financing, which led to an unexpected damage to the affected community, would not give rise to any specific legal remedies other than ordinary lawsuits. So it is more effective for banks to ensure consistent implementation of the Principles and to have them take responsible measures to solve social and environmental issues. Public interests have recently mounted up with respect to environmental issues on the occasion of the Supreme Court's decision (2006Du330) on the fiercely debated reclamation project at Saemangeum. The majority Justices said that the expected environmental damages like probable pollution of water and soil were not believed so serious and that the Administration should continue to implement the project seeking ways to make it more environment friendly. In this case, though the Category A Saemangeum Project was carried out by a government agency, the Supreme Court behaved itself as a signal giver to approve or stop the environment-related project like an Equator bank in project financing. At present, there is no Equator bank in Korea in contrast to three big banks in Japan. Also Korean contractors, which are aggressively bidding for Category A-type projects in South East Asia and Mideast, might find themselves in a disadvantageous position because they are generally ignorant of the environmental assessment associated with project financing. In this regard, Korean banks and overseas project contractors should care for the revised Equator Principles and the latest developments in project financing more seriously. It's because its scope has expanded to the capital cost of US$10 million or more across all industry sectors regardless of developing countries or not. It should be noted that, for a Korean bank, being an Equator bank is more or less burdensome in a short-term period, but it must be conducive to minimizing risks and building up good reputation in the long run.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.110-119
• /
• 2009

Sosang Pal-Kyung(瀟湘八景), which originated in China and means eight scenes of So River and Sang River, greatly influenced the poems and the pictures in East Asia for a long time and became a cultural phenomenon leading the stereotype of the traditional landscapes in Korea and Japan. Studies on 'Kyung(a scene)' such as 'Pal-Kyung(八景)', have been made continuously until now, but there are no results of a study intensively focusing on the meaning and the form of Sosang Pal-Kyung, which is the origin of the domestic Pal-Kyung culture. The goal of this study is to investigate the typical form observed in Sosang Pal-Kyung-Ga(瀟湘八景歌) and Sosang Pal-Kyung-Do(瀟湘八景圖), as a text of a cultural landscape, and to clear up the coherence structure between a recognition system and a way of thinking that existed in the cultural phenomenon of Sosang Pal-Kyung. In this study, the symbolism of Pal(八) was summarized and the surface structure and the correlation of each Kyung of Sosang Pal-Kyung was explained in light of semiotics through segmenting and disjointing the lexeme of a landscape while the coherence structure and the meaning of Sosang Pal-Kyung-Ga and Sosang Pal-Kyung-Do as a text were investigated. Sosang Pal-Kyung is based on the view of the Sun and the Moon(or Positive and Negative) and the Eight Trigrams(八卦) for divination and is a linguistic symbol in which human life and the principle of circulation and conversion of nature are expressed as characters and picture texts. Its structure has strong coherence and cohesion, which attempt to move the abstruse truth of nature into human consciousness by developing and corresponding the grammatical structure and form of the sentences and the implicative languages emphasizing the symbolism of the words to the characteristics of similarities and contrast. In addition, Sosang Pal-Kyung expresses human life, the processes of birth and death of nature and the mutual response dialectically by putting various factors of the landscape in the frame of regular formality and structure. It is considered that the image signs in Sosang Pal-Kyung emphasize the theory of circulation of human life and nature are narrative scenery, which one looks at with a contemplative view in the circulation system of the time and the season. The cultural phenomena of Sosang Pal-Kyung in the Joseon Dynasty, which had been handed down from the Goryeo Dynasty, had become the driving force of leading aesthetics of Joseon's art and literature by adding the scenery of the point of view of Sung Confucianism. Its coherence structure was changed, but its cohesion was handed down continuously so that it became not only the basic text of the traditional and cultural landscape but also, the typical Korean-style stereotype of a landscape.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.1-22
• /
• 2013

This case focuses on Shanghai Tang, the first truly Chinese luxury brand that appeals to both Westerners and, more recently, to Chinese consumers worldwide. A visionary and wealthy businessman Sir David Tang created this company from scratch in 1994 in Hong Kong. Its story, spanned over almost two decades, has been fascinating. It went from what best a Chinese brand could be in the eyes of Westerners who love the Chinese culture, to a nearly-bankrupted company in 1998, before being acquired by Richemont, the second largest luxury group in the world. Since then, its turnaround has been spectacular with a growing appeal among Chinese luxury consumers who represent the core segment of the luxury industry today. The main objective of this case study is to formally examine how Shanghai Tang overcame its downfall and re-emerged as one the very few well- known Chinese luxury brands. More specifically, this case highlights the ways with which Shanghai Tang made a transitional change from a brand for Westerners who love the Chinese culture, to a brand for both, Westerners who love the Chinese culture and Chinese who love luxury. A close examination reveals that Shanghai Tang has followed the brand identity concept that consists of two major components: functional and emotional. The functional component for developing a luxury brand concerns all product characteristics that will make a product 'luxurious' in the eyes of the consumer, such as premium quality of cachemire from Mongolia, Chinese silk, lacquer, finest leather, porcelain, and jade in the case of Shanghai Tang. The emotional component consists of non-functional symbolic meanings of a brand. The symbolic meaning marks the major difference between a premium and a luxury brand. In the case of Shanghai Tang, its symbolic meaning refers to the Chinese culture and the brand aims to represent the best of Chinese traditions and establish itself as "the ambassador of modern Chinese style". It touches the Chinese heritage and emotions. Shanghai Tang has reinvented the modern Chinese chic by drawing back to the stylish decadence of Shanghai in the 1930s, which was then called the "Paris of the East", and this is where the brand finds inspiration to create its own myth. Once the functional and emotional components assured, Shanghai Tang has gone through a four-stage development to become the first global Chinese luxury brand: introduction, deepening, expansion, and revitalization. Introduction: David Tang discovered a market gap and had a vision to launch the first Chinese luxury brand to the world. The key success drivers for the introduction and management of a Chinese luxury brand are a solid brand identity and, above all, a creative mind, an inspired person. This was David Tang then, and this is now Raphael Le Masne de Chermont, the current Executive Chairman. Shanghai Tang combines Chinese and Western elements, which it finds to be the most sustainable platform for drawing consumers. Deepening: A major objective of the next phase is to become recognized as a luxury brand and a fashion or design authority. For this purpose, Shanghai Tang has cooperated with other well-regarded luxury and lifestyle brands such as Puma and Swarovski. It also expanded its product lines from high-end custom-made garments to music CDs and restaurant. Expansion: After the opening of his first store in Hong Kong in 1994, David Tang went on to open his second store in New York City three years later. However this New York retail operation was a financial disaster. Barely nineteen months after the opening, the store was shut down and quietly relocated to a cheaper location of Madison Avenue. Despite this failure, Shanghai Tang products found numerous followers especially among Western tourists and became "souvenir-like" must-haves. However, despite its strong brand DNA, the brand did not generate enough repeated sales and over the years the company cumulated heavy debts and became unprofitable. Revitalizing: After its purchase by Richemont in 1998, Le Masne de Chermont was appointed to lead the company, reposition the brand and undertake some major strategic changes such as revising the "Shanghai Tang" designs to appeal not only to Westerners but also to Chinese consumers, and to open new stores around the world. Since then, Shanghai Tang has become synonymous to a modern Chinese luxury lifestyle brand.

• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
• /
• v.7
• /
• pp.201-219
• /
• 1989

Rice culture in Korea has a long history ranging over two thousand years. In the agriculture economy of pre-mordern Korea, however, its importantce was not as great as generally assumed. In fact, rice culture reached full development only after the 1920s when the Japanese colonial government carried out its drive to increase rice production in the Korea peninsula. It was not until the mid-1930s that rice became the staple in Korean diet. This can be attributed to two factors : (1) a mountainous topography that provides little irrigated fields and (2) a climate characterized by droughts in spring and heavy precipitation in summer. The present paper attempts to answer some of these questions. Specifically it will focus on these : Did the development of rice culture actually result in population growth? What are the salient features of agricultural develdpment and population grow in traditional Korea? Does the case of Korea conform the prevailing generalization about the agriculture in East Asia? I have discussed the development of rice culture and population growth in the Chos$\breve{o}$n dynasty, focusing on the relation between the rapid spread of transplanting and the rapid growth of population from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Here are my conclusions. (1) The spread of transplanting and other technological innovationsc contributed to the rapid growth of population in this period. However, we should also note that the impact of rice culture on population growth was rather limited, for rice culture was not the mainstay of agricultural economy in pre-modern Korea. Indeed we should consider the influence of dry field cropsn population growth. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the proliferation of rice culture was a factor crucial to population growth and regional concentration. (2) How should we characterize the spread of rice culture in the whole period? Evidently rice culture spread from less then 20% of cultivated fields in the fifteenth century to about 36% of them in the early twentieth century. Although rice as a single crop outweighed other crops, rice culture was more then counter-balanced by dry field crops as a whole, due to Korea's unique climate and geography. Thus what we have here in not a typical case of competition between rice culture and day field culture. Besides, the spread of rice culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries accomplished by technological innovations that overcame severe springtime drought, rather than extensive irrigation. Althougt irrigarion facilities did proliferate to some extent, this was achieved by local landlords and peasants rather than the state. This fact contradicts the classical thesis that the productivity of rice culture increased through the state management of irrigation and that this in turn determined the type of society. (3) We should further study other aspects of the transition from the stable population and production struture in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the rapid population growth and excessive density of population thereafter. We should note that there were continuing efforts to reclaim the land in order to solve the severe shortage of land. Changes also took place in the agricultural production relations. The increase in land producrivity developed tenancy based on rent in kind, and this in turn increased the independence of tenants from their landlords. There were changes in family relations-such as the shift to primogeniture as an effort to prevent progressive division of property among multiplying offspring. The rapid population growth also produced a great mass of propertyless farm laborers. These changes had much to do with the disintegration of traditional social institutions and political structure toward the end of the Chos$\breve{o}$n dynasty.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.551-556
• /
• 2012

The database for the oriental medicine had been existed in documentation in past times and it has been developed to the database type for random accesses in the information society. However, the aspects of the database are not so diversified and the database for the bio herbal material exists in widened type dictionary style. It is a situation that the database which handles the in-depth raw herbal medicines is not sufficient in its quantity and quality. Korean wild grape is a deciduous plant categorized into the Vitaceae and it was found experimentally that it has various medical effects. It is one of the medical materials with higher potentiality of academic study and commercialization recently because it has a bigger possibility to be applied into diverse industrial fields including the medical product for health, food and beauty. We constituted the cooperative system among the Muju cluster business group for Korean mountain wild grapes, Physiology Laboratory in Kyung Hee University Oriental Medicine and Medical Classics Laboratory in Kyung Hee University Oriental Medicine with a view to focusing on such potentiality and a database for Korean wild grapes was made a touchstone for establishing the in-depth database for the single bio medical materials. First of all, the literatures based on the North East Asia in ancient times had been categorized into the classical literature (Korean literature published by government organization, Korean classical literature, Chinese classical literature and classical literature fro Korean and Chinese oriental medicine) and modern literature (Modern literature for oriental medicine, modern literature for domestic and foreign herbal medicine) to cover the eastern and western research records and writings related to Korean wild grapes and the text-mining work has been performed through the cooperation system with the Medical Classics Laboratory in Kyung Hee University Oriental Medicine. First of all, the data for the experiment and theory for Korean wild grape were collected for the Medline database controlled by the Parliament Library of USA to arrange the domestic and foreign theses with topic for Korean wild grapes and the network hyperlink function and down load function were mounted for self-thesis searching function and active view based on the collected data. The thesis searching function provides various auxiliary functions and the searching is available according to the diverse searching/queries such as the name of sub species of Korean wild grape, the logical intersection index for the active ingredients, efficacy and elements. It was constituted for the researchers who design the Korean wild grape study to design of easier experiment. In addition, the data related to the patents for Korean wild grape which were collected from European Patent Office in response to the commercialization possibility and the system available for searching and view was established in the same viewpoint. Perl was used for the query programming and MS-SQL for database establishment and management in the designing of this database. Currently, the data is available for free use and the address is as follows. http://163.180.41.43:8011/index.html

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.135-150
• /
• 2010

At the Intergovernmental Meeting held in 1972, the London Convention was adopted to prevent marine pollution from dumping of wastes and other matter. After that, at the special meeting held at the Headquarters of the International Maritime Organization in 1996, the London Convention was revised to consider advances in technology of treatment and disposal of wastes and to reflect changes in understanding of marine environment and then the London Protocol was concluded. The London Protocol states more concrete management system for ocean dumping than the London Convention and also provides that the Meeting of Contracting Parties shall establish those procedures and mechanisms necessary to assess and promote compliance with the Protocol. With the London Protocol in force since 24 March 2006, the Meeting of Contracting Parties adopted the 'Compliance Procedures and Mechanisms (CPM) pursuant to Article 11 of the 1996 Protocol to the London Convention 1972' and established the Compliance Group in 2007. According to the CPM, members of the Compliance Group shall be nominated by Contracting Parties, based on equitable and balanced geographic representation of the five Regional Groups of the United Nations, and elected by the Meeting of Contracting Parties. In 2009, the Republic of Korea nominated a member of the Compliance Group to be subsequently elected by the Meeting of Contracting Parties with the approval of other states in Asia Group. Through the United Nations Regional Group System based on geographical identity or political affinity, Contracting Parties to the London Protocol are expected to form a voting bloc or to exchange information in meetings on the London Protocol. In this sense, it is noteworthy that the London Protocol introduced marine environmental management system for comprehensive prohibition of ocean dumping with exception of the so-called 'reverse-list' which had been earlier adopted by the 'Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, 1992 (OSPAR)' whose contracting parties belonged to Western European and Other States Group. In recent years, the jurisdiction of London Protocol has been extended to protect and preserve the marine environment from all sources of pollution. This will make the United Nations Regional Group System play more important roles in the activities associated with the London Protocol. For this reason, this article has considered characteristics of the United Nations Regional Group System and has analyzed influences of this Regional Group System in meetings on the London Protocol. This could provide preliminary information for the Republic of Korea to give due consideration to the United Nations Regional Group System on the activities associated with the London Protocol.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.49-57
• /
• 2016

Even if an external forcing that will drive a climate change is given uniformly over the globe, the corresponding climate change and the feedbacks by the climate system differ by region. Thus the detection of global warming signal has been made on a regional scale as well as on a global average against the internal variabilities and other noises involved in the climate change. The purpose of this study is to estimate a timing of unprecedented climate due to global warming and to analyze the regional differences in the estimated results. For this purpose, unlike previous studies that used climate simulation data, we used an observational dataset to estimate a magnitude of internal variability and a future temperature change. We calculated a linear trend in surface temperature using a historical temperature record from 1880 to 2014 and a magnitude of internal variability as the largest temperature displacement from the linear trend. A timing of unprecedented climate was defined as the first year when a predicted minimum temperature exceeds the maximum temperature record in a historical data and remains as such since then. Presumed that the linear trend and the maximum displacement will be maintained in the future, an unprecedented climate over the land would come within 200 years from now in the western area of Africa, the low latitudes including India and the southern part of Arabian Peninsula in Eurasia, the high latitudes including Greenland and the mid-western part of Canada in North America, the low latitudes including Amazon in South America, the areas surrounding the Ross Sea in Antarctica, and parts of East Asia including Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, an unprecedented climate would come later after 400 years in the high latitudes of Eurasia including the northern Europe, the middle and southern parts of North America including the U.S.A. and Mexico. For the ocean, an unprecedented climate would come within 200 years over the Indian Ocean, the middle latitudes of the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic, parts of the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ross Sea, and parts of the Arctic Sea. In the meantime, an unprecedented climate would come even after thousands of years over some other regions of ocean including the eastern tropical Pacific and the North Pacific middle latitudes where an internal variability is large. In summary, spatial pattern in timing of unprecedented climate are different for each continent. For the ocean, it is highly affected by large internal variability except for the high-latitude regions with a significant warming trend. As such, a timing of an unprecedented climate would not be uniform over the globe but considerably different by region. Our results suggest that it is necessary to consider an internal variability as well as a regional warming rate when planning a climate change mitigation and adaption policy.

• Journal of National Security and Military Science
• /
• s.15
• /
• pp.57-86
• /
• 2018

The ROKAF has been training for a number of exercise for victory in the war, but the lack of aviation ammunition has become a big issue every year. However, due to the limitation of defense resources, there are many difficulties in securing and stockpiling ammunition for the war readiness. Therefore, there is a need to find a way to secure aviation ammunition for war readiness in a more economical way, so In this study, we analyze the precedent research case and the case of the reduction of the purchase cost of weapon system of other countries, and then I have suggested a plan that is appropriate for our situation. As a result of examining previous research cases for this study, there were data that KIDA studied in 2012, Precision-guided weapons acquisition cost reduction measures pursued by US Air Force And the use of procurement agencies that are being implemented by NATO member countries. Based on this study, the following four measures were proposed to reduce the purchase cost of aviation ammunition. First, the mutual aid support agreement was developed to sign the ammunition joint operation agreement. Second, join the NATO Support & Procurement Agency (NSPA) Third, it builds a purchasing community centered on the countries operating the same ammunition Fourth, participating in the US Air Force's new purchase plan for ammunition and purchase it jointly. The main contents of these four measures are as follows. 1. the mutual aid support agreement was developed to sign the ammunition joint operation agreement. Korea has signed agreements on mutual logistics support with 14 countries including the United States, Israel, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, and Taiwan. The main purpose of these agreements is mutual support of munitions and materials, also supporting the training of the peace time and promoting exchange and cooperation. However, it is expected that there will be many difficulties in requesting or supporting mutual support in actual situation because the target or scope of mutual aid of ammunition is not clearly specified. Thus, a separate agreement on the mutual co-operation of more specific and expanded concepts of aviation ammunition is needed based on the current mutual aid support agreements 2. join the NATO Support & Procurement Agency (NSPA) In the case of NATO, there is a system in which member countries purchase munitions at a low cost using munitions purchase agencies. It is the NATO Purchasing Agency (NSPA) whose mission is to receive the purchasing requirements of the Member Nations and to purchase them quickly and efficiently and effectively to the Member Nations. NSPA's business includes the Ammunition Support Partnership (ASP), which provides ammunition purchase and disarming services. Although Korea is not a member of NATO, NSPA is gradually expanding the scope of joint procurement of munitions, and it is expected that Korea will be able to join as a member. 3. it builds a purchasing community centered on the countries operating the same ammunition By benchmarking the NSPA system, this study suggested ways to build a purchasing community with countries such as Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. First, it is necessary to review prospectively how to purchase ammunition by constructing ammunition purchasing community centered on countries using same kind of ammunition. 4. participating in the US Air Force's new purchase plan for ammunition When developing or purchasing weapons systems, joint participation by several countries can reduce acquisition costs. Therefore, if the US Air Force is planning to acquire aviation ammunition by applying it to the purchase of aviation ammunition, we will be able to significantly reduce the purchase cost by participating in this plan. Finally, there are some limitations to the method presented in this study, but starting from this study, I hope that the research on these methods will be actively pursued in the future.

• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.25-51
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyze the key factors affecting satisfaction of the visually impaired SNS users so that they may use SNS more effectively in the future. This study has used three factors such as the information factor, the relationship factor and the speed factor and the usability as independent variables. The social presence factor was used as a parameter and the SNS user satisfaction as a dependent variable. For the research, 195 visually impaired SNS users have participated in this survey. The major findings of this study are that the relationship factor has strong effects on the self-identification factor, the social presence factor and the SNS usage satisfaction among the factors affecting the visually impaired users to be satisfied with SNS. On the other hand, the information factor and usage factor have no effects on the self-identification factor and the social presence factor. However, they have effects on the SNS usage satisfaction. Additionally, the self-identification factor has no effect on the SNS usage satisfaction, but the social presence factor has effect. Based on the above study results, this paper proposed for the government to enhance the educational program on the use of SNS for the visually impaired and to increase its financial and political support on this subject. Additionally, technical supports on SNS service accessibility and usage by the government are vital for the visually impaired. Academically, this study provides a concrete groundwork for the research on the use of SNS by the visually impaired by providing a solid research direction for further study on this subject. Socially, this study helps the visually impaired use SNS more effectively by increasing the general public awareness of the importance of SNS usages by the visually impaired so that the information gap of the society may be diminished in the future.