ACCESS PRESS Volume 13, No.2   February 10,2002 can be reached from the web site address of Access Press www.accesspress.org under the title of archives of back issues dated February 2002

Disability Culture

An Overview of Services for People with Disabilities in Turkey
by Irem Cosansu Yalazan

Turkey, or "Turkiye" in the Turkish language, is located where Asia and Europe meet. The surface area of Turkey is 312,503 square miles. The population is 67 million, according to the 2000 census. The capital city is Ankara. The country is divided into 81 provinces. The government is a parliamentary democracy, meaning that the legislative, judiciary, and governing bodies work under a check and balance system. The parliament has 550 representative members and elections are held every five years.
Turkey has a developing economy and a young, dynamic population. Within this population, there are approximately 7 million people with various disabilities or 10 % of the population according to The World Health Organization's definitions. It is estimated that 1.5 million people have developmental disabilities.

Disability Rights

The Constitution of The Republic of Turkey guarantees all citizens the rights of protection and participation in society, the rights of employment and protection in the work environment, and the rights of education and training for integration into society. To this end, various pieces of legislation related to the rights of health, education, care and rehabilitation, employment, social security, and accessible physical environment have been advocated by disability organizations in favor of persons with disabilities. The long-term efforts of these advocates led to the adoption of this legislation by the government.
Two particular improvements have been enacted and have given hope in the disability field. One of them deals with the reorganization of government bodies providing services, and increased collaboration among for-profit and nonprofit organizations; the other is an increase in the number of day care rehabilitation centers run by government, for-profit, and nonprofit organizations. Both improvements are a result of long-term efforts by people working in the disability field and are considered the seeds of better policy and services.

Government Offices

The High Council of Disability with participation by representatives from the ministries of health, education, labor and social security, social services, and the confederation of disability organizations and universities was established in 1997 to determine disability policy.
The Administration of Disability was established as a secretariat body of The High Council of Disability. Its duties are to provide coordination and collaboration among governmental and nongovernmental organizations to support projects that provide disability services, to publish research reports and manuals, and to provide ID cards to people with disabilities. Currently these cards provide discounts to people with disabilities who travel by plane, train, and public transportation and who attend the theater. The holders of these cards will receive other benefits in the future. This service-based record system will be used as database for determining disability policy and services.

The Administration of Disability organized the first Disability Conference in 1998. Before the conference was held, different commissions were established and had the broad participation of academicians, representatives of government bodies, and advocates of disability organizations. They prepared reports related to the needs and problems of people with disabilities, which have provided a base of knowledge and objectives for future efforts in the disability field.
"The Law Related to Rights and Services for People with Disabilities" has been prepared with the collaboration of different parties in the disability field. It grew out of the first Disability Conference, and it is on the agenda of the National Assembly.

Education

The Ministry of Education has had special education curricula since 1951. The curricula, and related legislation, were revised in 1983 and again in 1997. There are efforts to improve integration of children with special needs into the mainstream education system by providing accessibility, preparing classroom conditions, and training of teachers and staff.
There were 16,155 students with disabilities and 2,603 teachers in 269 special schools and centers during the 2000-2001 school term. When we compare the number of elementary schools (43,257) and number of students (9,884,444), it is obvious that a very small percentage of children with disabilities can use their rights of education. The number of children with disabilities being integrated into the school system is expected to increase in the future.

Social Services

A Social Services and Child Protection Agency has been organized in all provinces in Turkey. The Agency has 18 residential care institutions for people with physical and mental disabilities. There is a waiting list consisting of approximately 2000 persons with disabilities for these institutions.
The Agency provides day care rehabilitation services in 50 centers, most of which are run by a partnership of disability organizations.
The social security agencies have subsidized the services of for-profit and nonprofit day care rehabilitation centers since 1997. That's why the number of for-profit centers has skyrocketed from 30 to 200. The majority of these centers have provided services to people with developmental disabilities. These centers can be seen as first step for improving community-based social services.
There is a need for long-term and short-term residential care, especially for adults with developmental disabilities. As there is no subsidy, only one or two for-profit centers provide residential care services.

The Future

When we compare the number of persons with disabilities and the existing services in Turkey, it is not easy to be optimistic. Needs go far beyond services currently available. However, hope for the future exists through improvements in legislation; collaboration among government bodies and private, nonprofit, and disability organizations; advocacy efforts of disability organizations; and the participation of an increasing number of professionals and academicians.

 

Irem Cosansu Yalazan is a social worker from Turkey who is completing a ten-month fellowship at The Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at The University of Minnesota. The participation of the Humphrey fellows in the culture column has been arranged by Lolly Lijewski.