What are the Technological Needs of Disabled Students in Turkey?

1. What are the Technological Needs of Disabled Students in Turkey? Claire Thomas Ozel Middle East Technical University Fethi A. Inan The University of Memphis Celal Sezer Iller Bankasi

6. Esref Armagan : • born both unsighted • never received any formal schooling or training • draws and paints by using his hands and primarily oil paints.

7. Facts about turkey • Population of Turkey : • 67.8 million (as of 2002) • Number of PC s : • 1.4 Million • Number of cellular phone holders : • 27,887,500 (2003) • Yearly income per capita : • $3,500 • Current Internet Users : • 5.5 million (2003) • Literacy rate (2003) • total population: 86.5% • male: 94.3% • female: 78.7%

8. Proportion of disabled people

9. Proportion of types of disabilities

10. Literacy status

11. Completed Education level

12. Approaches to special education • Individualistic approaches • Functional inabilities • Separate schools • Social approaches • Inappropriate environmental and social conditions • Regular Schools

13. Countries and approaches Blind and partially sighted pupils by type of facility (%) The Deaf and partially hearing pupils by type of facility (%)

14. Legislation in USA • Rehabilitation Act of 1973 • Mandated that people with disabilities have access to programs and services that receive federal fund. • American Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 • Required that people with disabilities have access to public programs and services, regardless of whether or not they are federally funded. • Specially, individuals with disabilities enroll in distance learning program, course content must be accessible to them.

15. Legislation and constitutional issues • 1982 Turkish Constitution • Outlaws any kind of discrimination and advocates equal rights for all citizens • Pupils with disabilities should share the same statutory entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum • Provide free primary education and to supplement and aid private and corporate initiatives. • All state schools must be financed entirely by the state through the Ministry of National Education to meet the needs of children.

16. Special Education Structure in Turkey • Primary school (K 1-8) • Mandatory • Directed by Government • Separate schools • High School (K 9-11) • Directed by Government • Separate schools • University • Facilitate by Higher Education Council • Each university has its own SED politics • No legal requirements

17. Implications of legalities • The government has special schools for children with hearing, visual, mental and physical difficulties • High risk of repeating or dropping out because of environmental reasons and lack of resources • Although Turkey recognizes the rights of children with disabilities to receive a suitable (comparatively equal) education, the right to special education has not been upheld in practice as required by the legislation

18. SED Problems in Turkey • Lack of resources • Lack of expert teachers, professionals and administrators who are expert • Lack of information exchange among external services and institutions • Lack of collaboration between administrators, professionals, teachers, parents and external services

19. Assistive/Adaptive Technologies • Assistive Technology: Any device or method which makes the environment more accessible to a person with a disability • Assistive Computing : A method which incorporates any method or device which makes the computer more accessible for a user with a disability.

20. Assistive technologies can do • Personal satisfaction • Career opportunities • Share information • Study and work independence • Fast reliable and flexible learning environments • Compensate for the disabilities • Environments for communication and Socialization • Prepare people for employment

21. Assistive tehnologies • Speech synthesis (Text-to-Speech) • Voice recognition software (Speech to Text) • Organizational programs

22. Universal Design of Instruction • Inclusiveness • Physical access • Delivery method • Information access • Interaction • Feedback • Demonstration of knowledge (assessment) We need to use the new technologies not only to overcome existing barriers to learning, but to design environment for learning that have fewer barriers right from the start (Rose, 2001)

23. Classroom implication Problems • Schools don’t know what technology is available and in what way these technologies can apply • Teachers/instructor are not trained sufficiently (Actually no training) • More costly equipment compare to regular • There is not enough computer and computer with special educational technology No regulation for accessibility issue

24. WWW • “The power of web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect “ (Tim Lee-Berners, W3C) • “Assistive technologies make it possible for individuals with a wide range of disabilities to gain access to computer. However, most of the internet resources are still not accessible to individuals with disabilities using these technologies” (Burgstahler, 2002)

25. Problem Accessibility • Seeing graphics • Hearing audio • Movement (mouse) • Connection speed

26. Suggestion for accessibility • Maintain simple, consistent page layout • Legitability • Captioning or transcribing audio/video • Make links clear and descriptive • Use informative tag (ALT) • Make available short cuts

27. Professional establishments • SIG in TBD • Founded in 2002 • Activities • Create standards • Prepare manual and documents • Examine new developments • Educations Centers • 20 education centers • 3 internet cafe

28. Professional establishments • OKU : Turkish screen reader • Voluntarily developed • Provides • E-mail • Internet browsing • Writing (notepad) • Clock, calendar and calculator

29. Universities and disabled students University Entrance Exam (OSS) • Application • Exam format and process • Questions • Most of the students attend social science programs (Political science, Law schools) • Only voluntarily services are available

30. Bogazici University • Audio unit at library • Partially class books are made audio (Voluntarily created) • Reader equipment • Computers • Each disabled student is provided with • Talking dictionary • Braille and speaker • Braille calculator

31. Middle East Technical University • Audio library • Computer • Reader equipment • Student club • PROJE detaylari, activities you can add what you are doing now

32. Conclusions • Equal opportunities • No separations • Universal design of instruction • Preservice teacher training program must become more familiar with assistive technologies

33. Recommendation for university • Accessibility of document, syllabus, lecture notes • Presentation of content in different format • Directing SED activities from main office • Universal design of instruction

34. Questions

35. Planning Study: Purpose • Investigate the technological needs of disabled university students in Turkey and examine how assistive technologies can help them to obtain equal opportunities in tertiary education.

36. Planning Study: Questions • What type of technologies are currently been using by disabled students in Turkey? • To what extent are these technologies used by disabled students? • What are the barriers which impair disabled students utilization of technology?

37. Planning Study: Instruments • The subjects of this study will be the students from four universities in Ankara • Technologies for students with disabilities Survey was developed and will be administered

38. References • http://www.bigglook.com/biggtraveleng/infotips/population.asp • http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tu.html • http://www.turkishembassy.org/countryprofile/inbrief.htm • Morrison, G., Lowther, D. L. & DeMeulle, L. (1999). Integrating computer technology into the classroom. • Jonsson, T. & Wiman, R. (2001). Education, Poverty and Disability In Developing Countries • SIS (2002). 2002 Turkey disability survey. Ankara:Turkey • Rose, D. (2001). Universal design for learning. Journal of Special Education Technology. 16 (4), pp.64-67 • Guvenir, A. (2004). Oku 3.0.1. http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~guvenir/oku • Sari, H. (2000). Development of special education provision in Turkey: From the inclusive perspective. Proceeding of international special education congress. • Dogan, C. (2004). Ozurlulere doping: Bilisim teknolojileri. http://www.cagridogan.com/bilisim.htm • Mendels, P (1999). Barrriers online for those with disabilities. http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/cyber/articles/04disability.html • Comden, D. & Burgstahler, S. (2002). World wide access: Accessible web design. • Burgstahler, S. (2002). Universal design of instruction. (BUNU ALLLL) • Elibal, I. , Enguclu, A. , & Turkeli, S. (2002). Informatics an blinds. • Forgave, K. E. (2002). Assistive technologies: empowering students with disabilities. The Clearing House, 75(3). • Burgstahler, S. (2002). Distance learning: The library’s role in ensuring access to everyone. Library Hi Tech, 20 (4), pp. 420-432 .