Our Minister of Family and Social Services, Derya Yanık, said: "We care very much that our libraries, which are our doors to other worlds, are accessible, and that they become people-oriented spaces which embrace all segments of society."

Minister Derya Yanık made a speech at the opening of the "2nd Accessible Libraries Workshop" held at the Presidential National Library with the participation of representatives of relevant public institutions and organizations, universities and civil society organizations.

Stating that libraries, books, are the wealth of knowledge of humanity, Yanık said: "We all know this reality. Those who want to use this reality for the benefit of humanity and those who use it to their detriment know it. In all wars, libraries are destroyed first."

Indicating that the Sarajevo Library and the Baghdad Library were among the first to be destroyed in the wars, Yanık continued as follows:

“The more memory we have, the more you remember the past, the more genuinely you can carry yourself to the future as a society or as an individual. Our familiarity with books is not just an act of reading and accessing information. Books open a universe to us and we build a humanity there, and we pass this civilization on to the next generations. The concept we call civilization is not just a structure consisting of a few titles. It is a structure that fits all the memory of humanity and all the experience of that society until that day. One of the main actors of this is books and the structures that protect them are libraries.”

Minister Yanık, stating that accessibility is for everyone, said that not only citizens with disabilities, but also older persons, pregnant women and parents who are with a baby carriage need accessibility.

Minister Yanık said: "We are faced with a reality that really requires accessibility according to everyone's personal situation. That's why we say 'accessibility for everyone'."

"Services for persons with disabilities have been secured"

Noting that as the Ministry, they have been working on accessibility under the responsibility of the General Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly, Yanık said that services for persons with disabilities have been implemented uninterruptedly and without compromise for nearly 20 years.

Minister Yanık also gave information about accessibility and social service processes related to persons with disabilities.

Indicating that the legal infrastructure was strengthened with the law for persons with disabilities in 2005, Yanık reminded that Türkiye was among the first countries to sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007. Yanık said: "This is one of the first steps that demonstrates our will to work for persons with disabilities and our determination to establish a strong legal basis in that field."

Pointing out that positive discrimination for persons with disabilities was constitutionally guaranteed in 2010 and 2020 was declared the "Year of Accessibility" by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Yanık said that the policies and services for citizens with disabilities, which were previously neglected, were guaranteed by legal studies during the AK Party governments.

Works are carried out on the basis of rights

Emphasizing that all works for persons with disabilities are rights-based, Minister Yanık said: "Our starting point is the approach that persons with disabilities have the right to access social life, economic life, business life, education life, in short, every aspect of life, which is their most natural right of citizenship and none of the services are a blessing or a gift for persons with disabilities. The approach that underlies the whole of our work is that it is especially rights-based.”

Explaining that accessibility is defined as "everyone's ability to independently and safely access and use any service, anywhere and anytime", Yanık underlined that being able to access all services and areas, including information and communication technologies, is a natural necessity of daily life.

Minister Yanık said: "Therefore, it is our duty to ensure that every individual has access to every service wherever and whenever they need it."

Making assessments on the importance of "independent and secure access", Yanık said:

“Regulations and services need to be used without anyone's help and without any risk of accident. For example, ramps with a slope above the standards or slippery floor coverings can be extremely dangerous for persons with disabilities, let alone convenience. We continue to work very carefully and seriously on this issue. We are carrying out an accessibility application that will actually meet the need, calculated with scientific methodology, meeting a need for persons with disabilities, and not pose a risk. In this sense, we make the necessary warnings and studies regarding those who do not comply with the standards.”

The work of the Ministry is carried out under three headings.

Minister Yanık said that the Ministry's accessibility studies are carried out under the headings of "work on legislation", "dissemination of applications" and "raising social awareness".

Yanık stated that thanks to their studies, institutions have shown more interest in the subject and that they have determined they increase their budget demands for the transformation of existing buildings every year, and that the number of those who demand to obtain an "Accessibility Certificate" has increased by ensuring compliance with the accessibility criteria.

Yanık stated that municipalities also accelerated the implementation of accessible parks, pavements and pedestrian crossings, and transformed public transportation vehicles.

"Libraries made accessible to all types of disabilities"

Yanık said that 16 libraries, whose inspections were completed by the Accessibility Monitoring and Inspection Commissions and were entitled to use the "Accessibility Logo" by obtaining an "Accessibility Certificate", will receive their awards, and continued as follows:

“These libraries have been made accessible to all types of disabilities. A library user, with visual or orthopedic impairment, can easily visit these libraries and reach whatever they want. Not only libraries, schools, hospitals, shopping malls, public buildings, parks, large estates... Hopefully, we would like to give accessibility documents to these structures with great happiness. Anyone who is strong, healthy and has no difficulties in accessing should not need to have a minor accident or have persons with disabilities around in order to be aware of this need. This awareness and consciousness development takes place in the codes of our civilization and belief.”

Expressing that she believes that important results will be obtained from the workshop, Yanık said, "We care very much that our libraries, which are our doors to other worlds, are also accessible, and that they become people-oriented spaces that embrace all segments of society. We will continue to work for a society where every individual who adds value to life and everyone who creates social benefit exists with a sense of equality, fairness and fairness.”

After the speeches, Minister Yanık presented flags with accessibility logos to 16 libraries, including the university, public library and municipal library, whose inspections were completed by the Accessibility Monitoring and Inspection Commissions in 2022 and were entitled to use the Accessibility Logo by obtaining an Accessibility Certificate.