Sayın Rektor,  sayın Vali,   Degerli misafirler

15 years ago when I arrived in TR 'there were no disabled people on the streets'.  Two years later I began  working at the Middle East Technical Universİty and wondered if children from the school for the blind could aim for METU.  That was the start of a long and lonely journey searchiİng for better ways for disabled students to succeed at university:  while in the past few were able to get beyond school, the few who did were important role models for others to follow; each one inspired people in their home town and convinced other’s parents that their disabled child might be able to got to school .  In January 2007 I led my first EU project (a one-week Leonardo da Vinci project).  One of the 5 participants was from MKU.  In one week we learnt about ways and systems, criterİa and priorities: rich and challenging, with ideas that needed to be adapted before applying them in Turkey. 

In May 2007 the Leonardo project’s dissemination activity was attended by 28 people from 19 universities: people at Turkish universities were ready for change.  A few weeks later I was invited to MKU:  The warm welcome, high level of interest, immediate organisation of a seminar and a workshop, introductions to a wide range of people left a very positive impression.  In Ankara we knew about the Civil Society Dialogue program and had begun to prepare the TIU Project application.  When we had to decide on partners we made a critical decision:  The Project should be run from outside Ankara, by a university able to carry the responsibility, open to change and committed to the issue: This was MKU. 

By choosing MKU the project is

• Led by a team aware of the university’s legal responsibility in relation to the 2005 Turkish Disability Act and 2006 Higher Education  Directive on Disability.  Their energy will lead many others to follow them.
• Has direct impact on education, through the Education faculty: the best place to start improving conditions for disabled MKU students, and also raise the awareness of future teachers training at MKU.
• Able to influence the development of the new campus so that new facilities are created barriers-free, with accessibility built in from the start.
• At a university where close relationships between staff and students will facilitate the spread of concepts and outputs.
• At a university more accessible in terms of entrance requirements to students who have been disadvantaged in school education.
• In a part of Turkey where the local impact will be significant, through contact between the university and the people of Hatay.

This projet builds on the earlier EU Leonardo Project.  Submitted in August 2007, we did not know what would happen in the next year:  a national e-group was started in October 2007 linking anyone at a TR university interested in supporting disabled students.  This egroup now has over 100 members from nearly 50 universities.  A second nation workshop on University and Disability in June 2008 was attended by 50 people from 27 universities.  Many have officially set up Disability Support Units and together we are identifying problems and sharing strategies and solutions. 

‘Towards Inclusive Universities' will take these developments further, to an international level.  We will share problems and solutions with specialists with years of experience: this is why we selected our Dutch partners.  Our Dutch partner is the national centre Handicap Studie, that provides centralised support for all the universities in the Netherlands: Lex Jansen and Rene van Pelt will tell us more about this.  One striking figure I wish to share with you: in the Netherlands 11 to 15% of university students declare that they have a condition that could disadvantage them at university.  At the moment there is no reliable information for Turkish universities, but it is perhaps around 0.1% students have no reason to talk about their needs if they do not believe they will benefit.  We hope our Dutch partners will gain understanding in cultural factors that affect behaviour and interaction, as they see a range of disabled people actively involved, developing skills and showing ambition: Turkey is a land full of potential, and with strengths that often are not noticed from outside…  We look forward to working with you.

In TIU,  we will also be making contact with others throughout Europe, fırst online and towards the end of the project at another meeting in Hatay with people from over 10 countrıes. 

Turkish participants in this project have been selected for different reasons.  Van Yüzüncü Yıl University is the most distant university geographically from Ankara; it will take the project's outcomes to an institution that can sometimes be marginalised by distance.  YYU was one of the fırst universities to set up a DSCU and they will bring their energy as well as the experience of disabled students far from Ankara.  Gazi University is not only the Turkish university with the greatest number of disabled students, it is the home of Prof. Aysegul Ataman (who unfortunately could not be with us today).  She has been fighting for 42 years for more appropriate conditions for disabled students; in the 1980s she arranged for a change to the university entrance exam, OSS, so that visually impaired candidates could participate.  Gazi University has one of the oldest Education Faculties, with focus on special education.  The Gazi University participants will take the project’s outcomes to a wide audience, in the capital, with contacts with the Ministry of Education…  Our two Turkish associates will therefore broaden the range of views that will be included: Towards inclusive universities!  TIU’s third partner is the Netherlands Institute for Higher Education in Ankara.  NIHA was instrumental in bringing together partners and ensuring project submission; they will bring essential organisational support and facilitate the effective operation of the project.

What is particularly new in TIU is the participation of disabled students themselves: they are the ones with experience of disability, who can describe their needs, needs that have so far been discounted or ignored, described theoretically by experts.  Students selected to participate in TIU will develop skills to become better representatives, listening to others, presenting and negotiating, being pragmatic and constructive to agree on ways forwards.  They will be active participants in the search for effective solutions.

The outcome of TIU will be to systematise and standardise the isolated solutions that now help individuals, taking this approach beyond the personal level to a more general system, that will continue when the first pioneers move on, that will remain when rektors change and that can be passed to institutions that have not yet started on this path. 

We are now many of us on this jouney, all contributing differently, complementing each other and preparing ways that will work beyond the existing systems in North West Europe: systems that reduce barriers across a wide range of countries, throughout and even beyond Europe.

I thank you for your interest and for the support that you will provide during the life of this project.

Claire Ozel,

Disability Support Coordinator,

Middle East Technical University