About Us

It is observed that 125 million disabled people travel around the world.

According to the World Health Organization, 15% of the world’s population is disabled. At least 20% of people with disabilities are currently traveling. This rate rises to 80% in developed countries.

According to the world tourism organization, accessible tourism will make up 25% of the overall tourism market by 2020.

53 million people with disabilities live in the United States. 26 million participated in entertainment and tour programs in 2017. 17 billion USD economic value has been created. These figures do not include those who travel for reasons such as sports, health or education.

76 million people with disabilities live in the European Union. 22 million of the disabled people living in the EU participate in daily tours, 15 million of them participated in domestic tours and 8 million of them participated in international tours.

There is no research on disabled people traveling in Turkey. However, the data of disabled individuals with travel potential are below.

There are around 155 thousand disabled people in working life, of which 60 thousand are in the public sector and 95 thousand are in the private sector. These figures do not include those who work on their own behalf, retirees and those with a disabled child.

Another data is that there are 43 thousand licensed athletes registered with the disabled sports federations, and the athletes travel at least 1 night a year and stay overnight. According to Yök data, there are 6500 disabled students studying at universities.

According to the information given by the institutions we interviewed while conducting research on barrier-free tourism in Germany: 10% of the society is made up of disabled people, and we have been informed that 70% of these disabled people travel. In another piece of information, we learned that there are approximately 150,000 blind citizens and 450,000 people with low vision, 30% of whom are currently working.

There are 300,000 disabled people of Turkish origin living in Germany.
Approximately 1000 disabled individuals have participated in the activities carried out by our association so far.
Although there is a legal basis for the national and international travel of the disabled, the disabled face various difficulties during their travels. Studies indicate that the difficulties encountered are due to the physical environment, that is, not due to adequate accessibility regulations.

In our field experiences, we have observed that the obstacles in the physical environment are actually caused by prejudices.

Disabled people travel for reasons such as education, sports, work and vacation despite all kinds of negativities.

There is no document to guide people with disabilities while exercising their human right to travel.

There is no similar document available for organizations that want to serve the disabled.

We do not have the power to rapidly transform the physical environment. But with your contribution, if we prepare a guide with practical information that will facilitate the travel of disabled people with travel potential, the disabled will travel more easily. However, those who serve will be able to serve more efficiently.

Our travel guide will be a tool that will facilitate the travel of the disabled as quickly and practically as possible.
Such a resource will be prepared for the first time in Turkey.
In line with the above information and reasons, we are planning a meeting (Workshop) with international participation.

The meeting will be attended by academicians, NGO executives and representatives from relevant public institutions who carry out rights-based work on the travel of the disabled.

In addition, representatives from the Tourism committee of the German Association of the Blind, the MINA Association, and the European Accessible Tourism Network will attend.

With the guide we have prepared, it is possible to provide more comfortable travel for the disabled people who are currently traveling; We aim to increase the desire of disabled people who are not currently traveling to travel.

In addition, we aim to provide quality service by creating a guide for businesses that need to serve the disabled during their travels.
Activities
It is foreseen that the meeting will be 40 people. The participants of the meeting will be selected from persons with disabilities who represent different persons with disabilities and travel at least once a year, academics working on the rights of persons with disabilities regarding travel, public institutions that may be related to the travel of persons with disabilities, and those interested in accessible tourism from the tourism sector.

There will also be representatives of international organizations.

During the selection, attention will be paid to the characteristics of gender, age, sector and specialization.

The meeting will be for 2 days. As a result of the meeting, 40 representatives who have a say in the travel of the disabled came together and the issue of the travel of the disabled will be discussed seriously. As a result of this discussion, the handicapped travel guide that will be used for years will emerge.

This guide will be published in different languages and will be available to a wide audience. In particular, it will be a handbook for people with disabilities who travel.

It will be a resource at their disposal that they frequently apply to in their organizations that want to serve the disabled.

We believe that the participants coming together at this meeting will come together in the next projects and produce new projects, and the guide created in this meeting will be taken as reference while producing new projects. We cannot pronounce a serious number for the guide user at the moment, but considering the tourism potential created by disabled individuals, we can foresee how much the number of users will be.

Article 13 of the Convention on Human Rights states that all people have the right to travel and this right cannot be prevented. In the 3rd paragraph of the 15th article of the European Social Charter, it is stated what needs to be done for the disabled to participate in social life and leisure activities.

Turkey is a party to the above international agreements. It has made various arrangements regarding the disabled in order to fulfill the provisions of the conventions.

The framework of legal regulations is the Law on the Disabled, numbered 5378. The law has two main features regarding the travel of the disabled.

The first of these states the provisional provisions regarding accessibility and the provision of services by the service providers without exposing them to a holistic (discriminatory) manner, without separating the disabled from the non-disabled.

Secondly, various discounts or exemptions have been granted so that people with disabilities can travel.

• In order to facilitate the access of disabled people in public areas, criteria have been established by various institutions.
• The accessibility inspection monitoring form numbered 2016/7 was published by the Ministry of Family and Social Policies, based on the temporary articles of the law no. 5378 on accessibility. In case of non-compliance with the provisions of this form, penal sanctions are applied to the relevant institutions. Since it is considered as a public space in the tourism area; tourism enterprises and regions must comply with the provisions of the said circular.
• Clause C of the 18th article of the tourism management regulation also includes provisions regarding the disabled. The criteria in the relevant regulation are not sufficient.
  There is a Red Flag application created as a result of the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Barrier-Free İzmir 2013 Congress. Since there are deficiencies in the application criteria, flags can be given to places that are insufficient in terms of accessibility.
• The Blue Flag application is a flag given for orderly and clean seas. Within the Blue Flag criteria, 1 item states what the beaches should do about the disabled. As we mentioned above, although there is a legal basis for the travel of the disabled, the disabled face various difficulties during their travels. Studies indicate that the difficulties encountered are due to the physical environment, that is, not due to adequate accessibility regulations.

In our field experiences, we have observed that the obstacles in the physical environment are actually caused by prejudices.

Disabled people travel for reasons such as education, sports, business, travel and vacation despite all kinds of negativities.

There is no document to guide people with disabilities while exercising their human right to travel.

There is no similar document available for organizations that want to serve the disabled.

In line with the above information and justifications, we are planning a meeting to prepare a disabled travel guide with academicians, NGO managers and representatives from relevant public institutions that carry out rights-based studies on the travel of the disabled.

With the guide we have prepared, it is possible to provide more comfortable travel for the disabled people who are currently traveling; We aim to increase the desire of disabled people who are not currently traveling to travel.

In addition, we aim to provide quality service by creating a guide for businesses that need to serve the disabled during their travels.

Activities

It is foreseen that the meeting will be 20 people. The participants of the meeting will be selected from persons with disabilities who represent different persons with disabilities and travel at least once a year, academics working on the rights of persons with disabilities regarding their travels, representatives of public institutions and private sector that may be involved in the travel of persons with disabilities.

• Gender distribution will be taken into account during the selection.
• Participants will be invited to dialogue with their candidates and inform them about the purpose and agenda of the meeting.
• Accommodation and transportation planning will be made for the final participants.
• For those who are not able to come to the meeting, it is planned to stay 1 day before the meeting day.
• Preparing the documents related to the meeting and receiving the consumables.
• Disabled travel guide meeting is planned for 1 night and 2 days.
• On the 1st day, presentations prepared by different institutions about registration, meeting, travels of the disabled.

Evaluation of the problems encountered in the travels of the disabled and suggestions for solutions.

Outputs and Results

• A guide will be created for the first time in the field of travel for the disabled.
• Those working in the field of travel for the disabled will be together for 2 days and the infrastructure of new projects will be discussed.
• Disabled people will realize their travels more consciously and with quality.
• In terms of individuals who make up the tourism sector, the unknowns about disability will be illuminated and the desire of tourism professionals to be with disabled people will increase.
• From now on, disabled people will travel more.
• As an association, our event planning process will be shortened and we will be able to do more effectively.
• We will have completed our association, which was established for the disabled to take more part in tourism areas, in the absence of such a guide, and we will share the documents created on our social media and web portal.

Contribution to civil society

Among the participants of the meeting we will hold, there will be representatives of NGO organizations with disabilities interested in travel. Thus, we foresee that the cooperation of NGOs with similar purposes will continue.

Another feature of our meeting is that the disabled, private sector academics and public institutions will be together, and the meeting will create a new synergy in the following processes.

During the meeting, the proposal to establish a platform for disabled travel will also be put forward and discussed.
We think that it will create significant awareness, especially in terms of the tourism sector.

Beneficiaries

Our study includes the preparation of a guide aimed at facilitating the travel of the disabled who are in the disadvantaged group.

Indirectly, it includes tourism businesses that want to produce services for the disabled in line with the information in the guide.

Considering the size of the disabled population and planning regionally considering the needs of disabled individuals, it will also make a significant contribution to the stay of the people of the region when the disabled people travel to the region.

Public, private sector and NGO

Considering the participation of the disabled in social life, public service providers, members of the private sector and NGOs cannot be productive without coming together.

Urban services in the fields of tourism are provided by public institutions and tourism enterprises. Based on this, we will ensure that representatives of the public and private sectors are present at our meeting.

We think that the issue of disability is everyone’s responsibility, and we plan to ensure everyone’s awareness of their own responsibility for those attending the meeting.

In cooperation with Katip Çelebi University Faculty of Tourism, we held a panel called “Handicapped Tourism in Tourism for All”.

We are carrying out the Accessibility Standards Study on Beaches and İzmir Disabled Employment Modeling Studies with İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and Environmental Education Foundation.

Different disability groups (visual, mental, orthopedic) participated in the activities and the disabled people were integrated with each other.

When it comes to tourism; definitions such as resting, having fun, traveling, getting information, sports, etc. Tourism from another perspective; renewing the body and mind of the human being; It is a very necessary living space that nourishes with cultural and natural beauties and most importantly serves the process of human socialization.

The role of tourism in bringing people together and becoming a society; It also serves the effort of disabled individuals, who are an important part of this society, to exist in the society and to be productive.