Location: Southeastern Europe and Southwestern Asia (that portion of Turkey west of the Bosporus is geographically part of Europe), bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria
Area: total: 780,580 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly larger than Texas.
Population: 70,413,958 (July 2006 est.)
Religions: Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2% (mostly Christians and Jews)
Government type: republican parliamentary democracy
Who? Berna, 23 years old, President of the "University without Barriers" organization.
Where? Ankara, Turkey.
Why? Berna wants to set up an organization for hard of hearing people in Turkey.
What? Her University students' organization and their awareness-raising initiatives.
How? And now, read below...
It was the first time a participant from Turkey took part in the International Federation of Hard-of-Hearing Young People (IFHOHYP) study session in Strasbourg. This session took place this year and was devoted to human rights of deaf and hard-of-hearing yout. Given that Turkey has a strong drive to enter the European Union in the next decade, and started accession membership talks with the EU, it is no surprise that in Turkey, young activists are looking to establish closer ties with European partners.
Berna, the only delegate from Turkey, struck me as a thoughtful, considerate person with a well-balanced approach. Let me share with you a discussion that followed between us after the study session was over.
Berna was born in a hearing family, and got her education in mainstream schools. She is fond of science and is pursuing a graduate degree in food engineering at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey's capital. Her educational aim for the future is to study food biotechnology.
"Deaf persons in Turkey are living in their 'own world.' There is a wall between them and hearing people. I hope this wall can be broken down soon, but deaf people must be more active to achieve this," Berna says. Berna identifies herself as hard-of-hearing and admits that hard-of-hearing people have more advantages than deaf people in Turkey because they can communicate with everyone. "But, we hard-of-hearing people," she says, "have to overcome more obstacles because we are living amongst both hearing and hard-of-hearing. Some people do not understand that we can have a hearing problem because for them, we look 'normal.' When I first got into my university four years ago, I was sad when some friends - and even some of professors - told me: 'You can hear because you do not use sign language, and you can speak.' Most hearing impaired youth can not get to university, so I felt very alone at first. Now I am more confident and want to be even stronger so that other students with hearing loss who are feeling alone can benefit from what I have learned."
Now, Berna patiently explains her situation to teachers and reminds them that they should face the class while giving a lecture. Still, the process of learning this by teachers is going rather slowly.
I wondered if there is there a clear-cut disctinction between deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Turkey. "No, there is none," Berna said. "Most people know only about deaf people and assume that if you can not hear you can not speak and should use sign language." In Turkey the term; isitme engelli is used for "people with hearing loss;" isitme means "hearing" and engelli means"having obstacles." This can be translated to English as "a person who has hearing obstacles." In her social life, Berna enjoys being with hearing, hard of hearing, and deaf people, but she feels more comfortable with hard of hearing friends.
There are few organisations of deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Turkey. One is the "Association of Deaf" in Ankara which has several branches in other cities; but as Berna states, they are not as effective as they could be. "I asked them to explain their support activities, but I could not get an answer," says Berna. "But I know that they are doing theatre performances currently and I am hoping to see this soon."
"Unfortunately, there is no organization of hard-of-hearing people in Turkey," she added. To establish such an organisation is one of her own goals and she hopes that she can achieve this together with her hard-of-hearing friends.
The lack of such an organization also means that there's probably not enough public awareness of people with hearing loss. "Indeed," continued Berna, "there are few programmes and little public information about deaf and HoH people. A few programs are broadcast once or twice a year, but these programs are only about deaf people. Articles are also published in newspapers from time to time but they are not enough. There are only two channels that provide captioning but not every program has them."
Berna cited an example from her own experience: "Last year, I participated by phone in a program in one of the most respectable analytical channels in Turkey. This programme had its focus only on deaf persons who communicate exclusively with sign language. I felt like they forgot about hard-of-hearing people. I could not follow the conversation since only a sign language intepreter was visible on the screen and I could not read lips; and, there were no captions. So I had to say, 'I have severe hearing loss, I am using hearing aid and, while I can talk on the phone, I can only understand lipreading, and I do not know sign language.' I also tried to explain how other hard-of-hearing people would feel in the same situation. 'Being deaf does not always mean that we can not speak, or that we use sign language,' I said. After that, the programme organisers divided the screen into two: one screen displayed a sign language interpreter, and the other screen showed the speaking person."
This experience proved to Berna that more should be done by both deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Turkey to raise public awareness about the complexity of communication with people with hearing loss.
This is exactly what Berna is doing. She has been working for three years in her university student organisation, 'Engelsiz ODTU' that amounts to 70 students, 25 of them being most active (University Without Barriers - www.eot.metu.edu.tr ) For the first two years, Berna was a committee member and last year she was elected as the organisation's president. Her organisation involves both disabled and non-disabled students, and does simulation activities about various disabilities - in order to develop a better undestanding of disability among the academic staff and students who have no disability. As a first hard-of-hearing member of the organisation, Berna was the first to raise the issue of hearing loss, and to start running meetings in a way that hard of hearing members could follow easily. For instance, everyone should raise a hand before speaking, should keep their lips visible, etc.
"We are developing simulation activities about lipreading and are explaining in our brochures how to communicate with people who have hearing loss. We were the first organisation in Turkey that offered a lipreading course to the public! We also produced a DVD on disability to increase the empathy of the academic staff."
How does it work? The DVD has videos of a lecture where the sound is "off" or disrupted so the viewers can not hear anything. "This semester we will show this DVD to academic staff and give a small quiz about the lecture," says Berna. "We hope this will help them understand the challenges hard-of-hearing students experience at lectures."
In the U.S., where the struggle for disability awareness started long ago, this may sound like an "old" practice; but, it's new for Turkey, and it is fascinating that while some people in Turkish society lack understanding of the needs of hard-of-hearing persons, a relatively small group of students is successful in starting such powerful advocacy.
More than that, after Berna experienced using an induction loop system (a system that enables a hearing aid wearer to hear sounds more clearly by reducing background noise and delivering sounds directly to the hearing aid) in Strasbourg European Youth Centre, she got motivated to install induction loops and introduce FM systems in her university. The result? After writing articles for mass media and letters to the University administration, the University's disability coordinator allowed them to install the induction loops. The only concerns that remain are related to cost, technical service, and installation. Berna hopes that this practice will be followed then by other universities across Turkey.
"I recently got an invitation letter to join the 'disability advisory committee' of my university," Berna shared with me. "This will be a great chance to express the needs of people with hearing loss! But, remember that all those activities happened with the help of my academic advisor and my friends in our organisation."
"I want to continue working for and with people with disabilities in the future," affirms Berna. "There is a lot to be done in this area in Turkey. If we sit and complain, nothing will happen!"
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