Disabled Demand Suitable Implementations Immediately

In a joint press release on the occasion of the World Disabled Week, 13 organizations urged the government and local executives to implement the applications anticipated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Activities on the rights of the disabled and their requests are being organized in many provinces during the World Disabled Week from 10-16 May. Şükrü Boyraz from the Association for Disabled People read out a press release on the centrally located Taksim Square in Istanbul.

He emphasized the following key points:

• Special education is not sufficiently supported.
• Sign language is still not widespread enough. The supply of equipment accessible by handicapped people is problematic.
• Disabled people are not employed according to their level of education neither in the private nor in the public sector. The planned amendments of the Civil Servants Law will be disadvantageous for the disabled. The authority to determine the quota of disabled staff will be given to the Council of Ministers; job security will be abolished by the expansion of contracted personnel; the possibility to obtain necessary appliances via institutions will be restricted.

Further demands are related to an increase of pensions for the disabled, making access to health services easier, solving problems regarding access to education, making the physical environment and public transport suitable for the disabled immediately, increasing employment of the disabled starting with the public sector and providing job security.

Murat Demirok, Head of the Istanbul Branch of the 'Six Points' Association for Blind People criticized the government's regulations on the recruitment conditions of civil servants regardless of the education and the age of the disabled.

Sevgi Yüksel, member of the Steering Board of the Association for the Hearing Impaired and their Families, said that beyond civil servants entry exams, the needs of the hearing and speech impaired people have to be considered in other central exams as well.

Hakan Ergül, member of the Steering Board of the Turkish Association for Muscular Diseases, indicated that the disabled are ignored as far as public transport and access to public buildings are concerned. He said that laws and regulations are clearly discriminative.

According to data compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) in 2002, a total of 12.3 percent of the Turkish population is disabled. 2.6 percent has disabilities related to "orthopaedics, sight, hearing, speech and speaking and mental disorders", 9.7 percent of the population is suffering from chronic diseases.

The joint press release was supported by the following organizations: Turkish Association for Disabled People, Turkish Association for Muscular Diseases, Association for the Hearing Impaired and their Families, Association for Visually Impaired People, 'Six Points' Association for Blind People Istanbul Branch, Istanbul Education and Research Foundation for the Mentally Disabled, Solidarity and Education Association for the Disabled and their Families, Community Centre Workshop for the Rights of the Disabled, Volunteers Association for Schizophrenia, Association for Hearing and Speech Impaired People, Istanbul Disabled Sports Club, Social Security Life, Education and Health Foundation, Yaşam Radio. (EY/VK)