Turkey’s first internet café for visually impaired citizens turns seven

Here is the good news. Turkey’s capital city of Ankara -- already a trendsetter in various aspects of promoting social inclusion, for example, by providing meals on wheels for its less mobile residents -- came up with something quite remarkable: It opened an Internet café for its visually impaired citizens.

Conveniently located in the ticket hall of the Beşevler underground station on the Ankaray line, which links the city center with major bus station AŞTİ, meaning there is no need for a lengthy journey by cab, all that is required is a helping hand extended by a friend or family member to make the short trip by metro possible. Accessible by elevator from both the platforms as well the above-ground areas, the café recently celebrated its seventh anniversary and successfully staged a chess tournament with specially designed chess boards.

Members regardless of age, physical location, education or professional background now have the chance to enjoy reading a book, consult a timetable, study a recipe or read this very newspaper, too. Modern technology paired with clever spending of taxpayer monies makes it all possible. It is an inviting place, airy, with ample space. It is the antithesis of how so many other public institutions for people with a disability look like and which more often than not make those who frequent them feel sidelined, patronized and perhaps even unwelcome. Not here, not in Ankara.

5,600 and counting

Having more than 5,600 members in its books who not only live in Ankara but hail from all four corners of the country calling the institution an “Internet café” seems to be an understatement. Seven years after its inauguration it has grown into something much more than simply a café offering Internet access for those who until very recently had no chance of benefitting from the age of information technology.

I wanted to know more and went there myself and had the pleasure of meeting with Fatih İmdat, the Görme Engelliler İnternet Cafe’s (Internet Café for the Visually Impaired) general manager. I learned that his center was officially inaugurated by Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek in 2004. Open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., expert staff are ready to make accessing technology as hassle free as possible.

A multi-lingual document prepared for first-time visitors, also available in Braille, details facts and figures: The center has 30 LCD-monitor computers complete with screen reader programs and Turkish synthesizers, five Braille displays, two scanners -- one Braille and one regular -- and stocks at present 408 books and 1,460 cassettes. All Greater Ankara Municipality documents are available upon request in Braille, too.

Members may want to surf the net, ask for help with their homework, wish to have a text or notes scanned and converted, prefer to print and read in Braille or record a CD in audio format. Here, almost everything seems possible, and each and every service is available free of charge.

İmdat told me that regardless of whether living nearby or further afield members with access to (adapted) Internet at home and unable to pop in can send an e-mail with files or links they wish to have converted. The Internet Café then returns them by delivery service unless they can be forwarded by electronic means. This includes homework, job-related issues, recipes, instructions for tools, restaurant menus and even full-length books. In addition, an outreach program is in place with a mobile Internet café taking off to local schools twice a week, and the café offers computer training classes as well. Braille prints of items of general interest, including sports, taken from the Internet are also sent to local primary schools.

İmdat also said a single adapted PC program can easily run up a bill of $1,250, hence the café is a vital money-saving tool for its members not only in the form of being able to have nearly any kind of documents converted into Braille or audio format but by being able to make use of specifically designed PC applications for the visually impaired.

Perception gap, sometimes both ways

My increased personal awareness about visually impaired citizens is in great part due to a family member who since early childhood has lived without being able to see except for closely held objects. His plight to make daily life less of a hassle is an ongoing struggle. Finding work was a particularly cumbersome affair -- it took the family considerable time to secure an office reception help desk position for him where reading is not necessary and where he would be treated nicely and fairly, but above all, just as another colleague, not someone to patronize. As a matter of fact, he lives with his parents only a few hundred meters away from the Internet café, yet initially did not want to join.

I learned from him what may be the reason why there are still a considerable number of potential beneficiaries out there who have decided not to become a member. It is not that the municipality does not prominently advertise its social services, it does.

According to him, the reason is the following: As so many parts of our society stigmatize people with disabilities, patronize them at best and outcast them at worst, he thinks becoming a member of an Internet café only open to the visually impaired would make him appear as he is giving in to his handicap vis-à-vis his peers. We all have to ask ourselves the question: From where does this attitude stem? Is it only due to ill-informed circles of friends? Is it perhaps due to how handicapped citizens are depicted on television, if they are even part of the cast; is it because teachers treat pupils with disabilities differently (some would go so far as to say a child who writes with her or his left hand is already an outsider -- something I witnessed myself upon paying a visit to a private primary school some weeks ago), or is it how the media write about them? This provides much food for thought.

Let us all learn from my family member’s very personal reflections and let us help those who feel intimidated by our “perfection matters” approach to daily life come out, feel proud and enjoy life just that small bit more, allowing them to proclaim, “I can read, no matter by which means.”

May many more Turkish municipalities follow in Ankara’s footsteps so that indifference and ignorance shown towards visually impaired citizens becomes a thing of the past!

Contact details: Ankara’s Görme Engelliler İnternet Café: e-mail: engellilercafe@gmail.com, phone: 0312 222 94 01. Greater Municipality website: www.ankara-bel.gov.tr.