Güven Sak, PhD - [Archive]

Turkish cities are not fond of persons with disabilities 04/12/2012 - Viewed 1910 times

Turkey’s urban governors are not aware that a person who rides a bike worth 100 liras has the same rights as a person who drives a car worth 100,000 liras.

Ankara was not designed taking people with disabilities into account. Or, more correctly, the possibility that people with disabilities might participate in work life was not considered when the city was planned. Let me take that one more step: the urbanization tradition of Turkey does not involve any concern as such. This is bad. Today 650 million people with disabilities live throughout the world, about 10 percent of the world’s population. The share of disabled people among the poor population is even higher, about 20 percent, as experts state. Being disabled is an impediment to finding a job. Yesterday was the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. A relevant story published in Hürriyet said, “People with disabilities too have the right to work.” But there is a profound problem in the way this right is defined in Turkey.

The legal framework of the “right of people with disabilities to work” was designed incorrectly in Turkey.

To ensure that people with disabilities have access to jobs, Turkey stipulated a quota system for the employment of persons with disabilities. According to this, “private sector employers that employ 50 or more workers in their workplaces have the statutory obligation to employ disabled persons at 3% of total number of workers at relevant posts.” This regulation, however, only salves the state’s conscience. Currently, the share of firms employing disabled persons is 21 percent among those with 49 employees or less and 79 percent among those with 50-199 employees. At first glance, the Jacobean regulation of the state seems to be working. In reality, however, it isn’t.

As of the end of 2011, there were 1,436,000 businesses in Turkey, employing a total of 11,031,000 people. And here comes the critical part: 98 percent of the businesses in Turkey employ 49 people or less. No one wants to abide by a job quota with ambiguous meaning. The relevant regulation covers not only persons with disabilities, but refers to several types of obligatory social employment. So, no one wants to take the risk. Passing the threshold brings about a series of obligations such as employing a doctor or opening a childcare center. Therefore, 65 percent of the employed population in Turkey work in businesses that employ 49 people or less.

Why has the regulation failed? Apparently, because it does not suit the market mechanism. The regulation, like many others, was basically designed to “pretend to be doing something” and salve the conscience of the state and society. “We have introduced the regulation. It doesn’t work because of the business world.” But the truth of matter is different. Other countries don’t implement top-to-bottom regulations, but genuinely give additional benefits to those who employ persons with disabilities in terms of tax cuts, premium exemptions, etc. They try to encourage employers not to just make up jobs but to create positions suitable for persons with disabilities. Not all of them, but those willing to take part, of course. This is the first point to state.

Second, it is not only about helping disabled people find jobs. You also have to make sure that they have easy access to their workplaces. In Turkey, a country which has no tradition of public transportation whatsoever and where you have to buy a car for easy transportation, it is a double-challenge even dreaming about having a job as a disabled person. Let’s say that you have found a job and bought a battery-operated wheelchair. Even so, there must be suitable roads in the city so that you don’t face additional problems caused by municipalities, as in a recent example from Ankara’s Keçiören district where a disabled person was hit by a garbage truck because his vehicle couldn’t access the sidewalks.

So, here is the deal: Turkey’s urban governors are not aware that a person who rides a bike worth 100 liras has the same rights as a person who drives a car worth 100,000 liras.

I think this also is an important disability.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 04.12.2012