BARRIER-FREE MARMARA UNIVERSITY and UNIT FOR THE STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

 

POLICY

 Every individual is unique with their own traits or deficiencies and all of them have the right to get education in equality. The priority of Marmara University is to provide integrative education for all the students in an inclusive environment to each individual with the respect given to their honor .

 THE RESPONSIBILITY and DUTY OF THE UNIT FOR THE STUDENTS with DISABILITIES at MARMARA UNIVERSITY

 At Marmara University, the Unit for the Students with Disabilities (USD) is a unit affiliated to the Rectorate, which provides inclusive education and an inclusive environment for students with disabilities by coordinating arrangements for accessibility in terms of surroundings, architecture and education as well as by ensuring equal participation in social and cultural terms. In order to provide these services, Unit for the Students with Disabilities coordinates the regulations with all academic and administrative units of the university, determines the improvements that need to be made, and provides consultancy and coordination for all those regulations. In addition, it carries out social and academic studies for the university to contribute to society in terms of inclusion for the handicapped.

LEGAL BASIS AND PURPOSE OF THE SERVICE OF THE UNIT for STUDENTS with DISABILITIES

 The legal basis for the establishment of Disabled Student Units in Universities is based on Article 15 of the Law No. 5378 on the Disabled, which entered into force in 2005. It is in the same scope as Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on Disabled Persons, which was signed by our country in 2009 and has a constitutional provision. Based on this foundation, it was established to provide inclusive education at universities. The working scope, authority and responsibilities of these units, whose establishment in universities is obligatory, are regulated in accordance with the Regulation Council of Higher Education derived from Article 15 of the Law No. 5378 for Counselling and Coordination Regulation of the Disabled. Initially, it was opened under the Department of Health, Culture and Sports at our university in 2010, and with the change in the regulation in 2014, it became a unit affiliated to the Rectorate. On 13 December 2016, the unit's directive determining the service framework and scope was passed by the Senate.

In this directive, the responsibilities, the duties and the functions of the unit are explained. The services provided to the disabled and the rights of the students are explained in articles. The unit makes all necessary arrangements for ensuring equal opportunity in education and for the rights-based education of the individual. With these articles, integrative and inclusive education arrangements for our students are done under the custody of the Disabled Students Advisers in the academic units who work as the representatives of the Unit for the Students with Disabilities. Besides this, students can receive their education in an accessible way with the individual education programmes designed by the USD the and Disabled Students Advisers in accordance with the needs of the students. In addition to these, for an accessible and inclusive education, assistive technology and peer support are provided to the students.  If there should be a need for detailed information, it is advised to read the “Yönerge” from https://eob.marmara.edu.tr/eob_menu/idari/yonerge

Due to the fact that distance education has come to the fore resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic, the updated "Integrative Education-Training and Exam Procedures and Principles" prepared by the unit for the accessibility of students' education has been shared with all academic units."

INFORMATICS AND RESOURCE ACCESSIBILITY

 All electronic systems and technologies used by the university are tailored to the needs of students with disabilities. All web services provided for disabled students to access the University's web-based services are prepared by considering W3 standards and WCAG. The main page of the university website, the web pages of the academic and administrative units, the student automation system and web-based education departments are updated by using current developing and changing technologies. The necessary arrangements for the accessibility of informatics are the responsibilities of the IT Department of the university.

The resources and the textbooks for the visually impaired student are scanned to be accessible at the Accessibility Office of the Department for the University Library with the cooperation of the USD. The library also has a rich collection of audiobooks and digital books. There are also assistive technologies that students can use independently. Attention to the universal design was highly paid considering the spatial structure and equipment of the library for the physically handicapped as a priority.  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1upTCdnifClCkh7exKQ8VtsADZ4LMACY8

The USD has also prepared specific resources for some of the courses.

https://eob.marmara.edu.tr/ust-menu/erislenenlik/egitim-erisletmeligi/osmanli-turkcesi-dersi

https://eob.marmara.edu.tr/ust-menu/erislenenlik/egitim-erisilmeligi/-note-read-and-write-for-the-sight-impaired

ACCESSIBILITY FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED

For the students who have difficulty with hearing in the classroom environment, FM Induction loop systems are provided. One of our conference rooms is equipped with a Frequency Modulation Induction Loop System.

Subtitles and sign language translation are provided to enable them to participate in our events or in our publications on social media.

That one of the students at medical faculty who has a hearing loss to some extent  has been provided with a special stethoscope for the hearing impaired can be given as an example for the assistive technology provided at Marmara University.

SPATIAL ACCESSIBILITY

56 of the 87 buildings in our university are suitable for the accessibility of the disabled, and 17 of them are partially suitable for accessibility. The ones listed below are in complete accessibility for all groups of the handicapped.

-Faculty of Law

-Faculty of Communication

-School of Business

-Atatürk Education Faculty D Block

-Head of Departments Building

-Institutes Building

-Faculty of Economics

-Faculty of Pharmacy

-School of Medicine

-Faculty of Dentistry

-Faculty of Health Sciences

-Faculty of Engineering

-Faculty of Technology

 OTHER ACCESSIBILITIES

Accessibility of some ATMs in our university has been completed. https://eob.marmara.edu.tr/eob-menu/accessibility/physical-accessibility/accessible-atmler

There is a shuttle that the disabled personnel to the cafeteria during lunch break and a special vehicle for the personnel.

SOCIO-CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

In order to create social awareness and to address the issue of our students' rights, the importance of assistive technologies, academic and scientific framework, the USD has organized many socio-cultural activities, including the Engelsiz Marmara Club, so far. In addition to these, it has organized workshops, meetings and shared the reports with the ministries and institutions of the state with the aim of contributing to social policy. https://eob.marmara.edu.tr/ust-menu/calismalarimiz

COURSES ON ACCESSIBILITY IN CURRICULUMS

As the USD has ensured that the students of the university should have the notion and knowledge of accessibility in their own fields, and in order to ensure the continuity of services for disabled individuals with an innovative perspective, it achieved to have the Accessibility of Informatics and Assistive Technologies Course to the Faculty of Engineering Curriculum and the Universal Design and Accessibility Criteria Course to Faculty of Architecture and Design Curriculum included.

AWARDS

Marmara University has received a total of 11 awards from three categories up to now, including Spatial Accessibility, Educational Accessibility and Accessibility for  Socio-cultural Activities, from Barrier-Free Universities Competition held by the Council of Higher Education. https://eob.marmara.edu.tr/ust-menu/erisebilirlik/odullerimiz