General Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly has been deemed worthy of an award with “Digital Accessibility Works” in the category of “Barrier-Free Informatics Public Service Award”.
“International Barrier-Free Informatics 2021 Congress” Where Accessibility for Everybody Regarding Access to Information and Services is Discussed was carried out
“Biltevt2021: International Barrier-Free Informatics 2021 Congress”, organized by Manisa Celal Bayar University in cooperation with our Ministry of Family and Social Services, General Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly, was carried out.
At the 2021 Barrier-Free Informatics Award Ceremony, under Biltevt2021: International Barrier-Free Informatics 2021 Congress, Ministry of Family and Social Services, General Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly has been deemed worthy of an award with “Digital Accessibility Works” in the category of “Barrier-Free Informatics Public Service Award”.
Dr. Orhan KOÇ, General Director of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly, Ministry of Family and Social Services, stated that they aspire to make persons with disabilities gain independent life skills and participate in socioeconomic life as an independent individual through the works they carry out in the field of disability in his speech he gave at the opening of the congress. Dr. KOÇ said: “In 2002 the number of civil servants with disabilities employed was approximately 7 thousand, it is, today, 58 thousand, meaning it increased by 10 times. Our citizens with disabilities are able to work at all state institutions and organizations; and more than 100 thousand persons with disabilities are able to work at private sector. 75 percent of our approximately 400 thousand children, who have special needs, can receive service suitable for accessibility criteria at the inclusive classes.”
Dr. KOÇ, who stated that there are works carried out for access to information at the universities via barrier-free universities campaign, said: “Everything from curriculum to content is designed suitable for the needs of persons with disabilities. Today, 750 persons with disabilities and 35 persons with autism spectrum disorder are educated at universities. There are arrangements for positive discrimination devoted to persons with disabilities during procedures of undergraduate, associate degree, postgraduate, and doctorate. The key of all these works is accessibility.”
Dr. KOÇ, emphasizing that it is more important to inform families of persons with disabilities during the pandemic, said:
“We have provided trainings for all state institutions and organizations on web content under Accessibility Workshops. We will continue to provide. Turkish Sign Language is a field to which we attach importance as Ministry. We aspire to generalize interpretership services. As a result of the protocol we signed with Ankara University and TOMER, we certify through proficiency exams. We will attempt to employ persons via these certificates in the public sector. Now we are founding a call centre which will provide service 7/24. At the call centre we are planning to provide service for persons with disabilities who do not receive service from private sector and want to receive from public sector via Turkish Sign Language interpretership services. It will be put into practice in the near future.”
2021 Barrier-Free Informatics Awards found their owners
After the opening speeches 2021 Barrier-Free Informatics Awards found their owners. Those who won an award in 7 categories are:
In the category of Barrier-Free Informatics Education Award; Ministry of National Education General Directorate of Special Education and Counselling Services Special Education Children’s Magazine, Anadolu University Barrier-Free Open Education Faculty, Manisa Celal Bayar University with Distance Education Applications for Persons with Disabilities, İzmir Provincial Directorate of National Education İzmir EBA Content Development Team with Relations Among Nature Digital Application for Persons with Disabilities.
In the category of Barrier-Free Informatics Jury’s Special Award; Manisa Yunusemre Şehit Fatih Kalu Imam Hatip Girls Anatolian High School with Tactual Education Materials and Voiced Maps Project, Aydın Adnan Menderes University with Accessible Libraries Workshop.
In the category of Barrier-Free Informatics Public Service Award; Ministry of Family and Social Services General Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly; “Digital Accessibility Works”.
In the category of Barrier-Free Informatics Social Responsibility Project Award; Audio Description Association Description Box Project, Istinye University Department of Management Information Systems Hairezmi – Artificial Intelligence for a More Accessible World Project.
In the category of Barrier-Free Student Projects Award; Atatürk University Adjustable Accessible Webpage Annotation, Torbalı Kazımpaşa Secondary School and Güzelbahçe Ali Bayırlar Primary School A Fraternity Tale Project.
In the category of Barrier-Free Informatics Private Sector Award; Alternatif Bank Barrier-Free Alternatif Bank
In the category of Barrier-Free Informatics Web Page Award; Akdeniz University Sarper Arıkan Application Academy.
After the award ceremony, congress continued with “Barrier-Free Informatics in the Public Sector”, “Academic Papers 1. Session”, “Barrier-Free Informatics in the Private Sector”, “Academic Papers 2. Session”.
At the congress to which domestic and foreign participants who are experts in various fields attended, several topics such as; access to information, accessibility in informatics technology, smart cities, informatics technologies in education, visually impaired persons and informatics, employment and informatics, hearing-impaired persons and informatics, mobile education, autism and informatics, informatics in special education, innovation and entrepreneurship, applications in the World and European Union, distance education have been discussed. Sessions of the congress, where works carried out in informatics technologies field were remarked, the problems in this field were designated and solutions for the problems were developed, were carried through online and face-to-face.
The congress, where the importance of informatics technologies on access to information and services was discussed, ended on 4th September 2021.