1st Activity Report (Kick-Off Conference held at MKU)

25 September 2008, Thursday

The Kick-Off Conference started with the Opening Speech of the Rector of Mustafa Kemal University, Prof. Dr. M. Şerefettin Canda and the Governor of Hatay, Nusret Miroğlu.

Prof. Dr. M. Şerefettin Canda talked about the importance of the Project TIU and how both the universities and the disability units will benefit from this Project.

The Governor of Hatay congratulated the team and promised that he would be there whenever in need.

The next speech was given by the Project coordinator assistant Claire Özel who is at the same time the disability coordinator of METU. Claire Özel gave information about the Project and how it started. She explained the activities that are going to be done during the 16 months.

Dr. Osman Özokçu from MKU gave information on the current situation of Disability in Turkey.

Dr. Lex Jansen and Dr. Rene van Pelt from Handicap+Studie talked about the current situation in the Netherland. They gave the audience a clear view of how things started to happen in the Netherland.

Disability Support Coordinator of Boğaziçi University, Engin Yılmaz, provided us with information on situations and solutions from universities in terms of disability.

In the afternoon the conference went on with two panels. The first one was about the experiences of disabled people. The panel was chaired by Claire Özel. One of the panelists was Assistant Professor Doctor Hatice Şahin from Ege University. She is the Disability Support Coordinator of her university. Ege University is the new associate of the TIU Project.

The other panelist was Yılmaz Yakışıklı a person with a disability working at MKU. He shared his experience as a disabled person and gave us valuable information on how to treat disabled people.

A Antakya archer at the 2008 Beijing paralympics, Gülbin Su, who is at the same time an art teacher, was kind enough to give us about sports and disability.

Erdal Abdülhayoğlu, a businessman in Hatay, talked about business and disability and tried to show us the difficulties a person with a disability can face.

Serkan Topraklı, the representative of the disabled association of Antakya also shared his feelings and experiences during the panel.

The second panel was chaired by Tayyar Kuz, the Representative of the Disabled Persons from Higher Education Council. The panel was about towards better Access to opportunities for disabled people. The panelists were a representative of chambers of architects, an Asistan Professor Doctor Architect from Anadolu University, a Representative of Governor Disability Unit in Hatay. The panelists talked about what can be done to give disabled people a better Access to opportunities. The issue was mainly discussed from the point of view of architecture.

26 September 2008, Friday

During the second day the first meeting of the Steering Committee was held.