Ministry of Family and Social Services Directorate General of Services for Persons with Disabilities held an online meeting for 23 September International Day of Sign Languages and International Week of Deaf People with national and international participants. Deputy General Director of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly Faik YILDIRIM was the moderator of the 23 September International Day of Sign Languages meeting.

Spc. Dr. Orhan KOÇ: The number of sign language translators will be increased through TİDYES (Turkish Sign Language Proficiency Exam)

At the programme which started with the opening speech of Spc. Dr. Orhan KOÇ, General Director of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly, KOÇ mentioned about the call centre which will enter into service in the near future to ensure equal rights for hearing impaired persons regarding accessibility. Spc. Dr. Orhan KOÇ, who stated that Turkish Sign Language Translators are in the field after their oath-taking ceremony on 7 July 2021, said that the number of sign language translators will be increased through TİDYES (Turkish Sign Language Proficiency Exam) which is carried out by Ankara University TÖMER in collaboration with our Ministry.

Prof. Dr. Zeliha KOÇAK TUFAN, member of Science Committee and The Council of Higher Education Executive Committee, provided information on works carried out for Barrier-Free University, materials for hearing impaired students, collaborations with Ankara University, and graduate study programme of sign language.

Head of Health Care, Patient Services and Education Department, Directorate General of State Hospitals Bilgen BAĞCI AYDIN said that they, as Directorate General of State Hospitals, follow the problems regarding barriers of communication hearing impaired persons encounter and she believes that terminology works in sign language and health fields will solve problems.

Gül Yiğit from Koç Hospitals, talked about the problems persons with disabilities who go to the hospital encounter during access to services via sign language. She mentioned about the fact that she has to take care of the hearing impaired patients during and after treatment since she works at the hospital.

Ersan YÜCEL, who works at Ankara University TÖMER, said that her hearing impaired wife received cancer treatment twice and talked about the problems, communication problem they encountered during treatment and lack of terminology in health field. He said that he believes there is a significant need for dictionary study and the event organized is the first step for it.

Prof. Dr. Okan KUBUŞ from Germany University of Hamburg, who carries out academic researches in the field, talked about the problems he encountered and detected in the field and how other countries carry out works with examples.

Sign language teacher and member of Association of People with Hearing Impairment of Turkey Samet DEMİRTAŞ talked about the benefits of ESİM project (Barrier-Free Health Communication Centre) which was started by Ministry of Health and emphasized the fact that it is quite important to generalize the project and use it in all fields. He said that he believes it would be beneficial to organize workshops and dictionary studies in order to eliminate lack of terminology in health field.

Prof. Dr. Yusuf KEMALOĞLU from Gazi University Faculty of Health Sciences, stated that sign language is a language which is recognized rapidly since 2013 and talked about UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He emphasized the importance of equal access to civil rights.

Faculty Member Dr. Kadir GÖKGÖZ from Boğaziçi University Department of Linguistics stated that the right to choose translator, to choose communication type (lipreading, writing, sign language) should be enhanced and the number of doctors who know sign language should be increased after emphasizing the importance of right of privacy of hearing impaired persons in health field.

Other sessions of the meeting continued online with national and international participants. Academicians, experts in their filed, worker of health sector, persons who carry out active works in Turkish Sign Language field attended to the meeting. During the closed session in which Prof. Dr. Sumru ÖZSOY was the moderator, Prof. Dr. Okan KUBUŞ from Germany, University of Hamburg Sign Language Linguistics, Faculty Member Dr. Bahtiyar MAKAROĞLU from Ankara University Turkish Sign Language Interpretation Department, Turkish Sign Language Translator Dr. Berrak Fırat FETAHNA from Eskişehir Technical University Faculty of Sport Sciences, biologist Selçuk AYDIN from Mamak State Hospital, Turkish Sign Language teacher and researcher Burcu PİŞKİN, Turkish Sign Language teacher and researcher Samet DEMİRTAŞ, language technician Erdal GİRAYLAR, Deniz İLKBAŞARAN from California University Department of Linguistics gave speech and made representations.

Approximately 300 participants including representatives of nongovernmental organizations, academicians, General Director of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly, Deputy General Directors, and experts, attended to the meeting. At the meeting works for problems in the health care field, related terminology, acceleration of dictionary study were discussed. Meeting ended with question and answer session.