CRPD
TheTurkey's Initial Report
The initial country report, although due in 2011, was published in 2015. The General Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly (EYHGM) in preparation of this report collected data from roughly 200 institutions including those representing persons with disabilities, human rights centers, those that make policy on disability-related issues, and those providing services to persons with disabilities. In meetings to draft the report, it is stated that representatives of disability organizations argued that rights of persons with disabilities were legally guaranteed, however, steps still needed to be taken to implement these guarantees. In the initial country report, it is not stated if any DHH people were directly consulted. Below is a summary of the content of the report that is most relevant to the DHH community, per the WFD's designated articles of significance.Sign Language Rights
Article 21: Recognizes the adoption of Turkish Sign Language through the TDA (Turkish Disability Act) and states that the Turkish Language Society was tasked with establishing a "national sign language system," although the methods of doing so are not mentioned. Article 24: Since the 2010-11 school year, course books that are accessible to students with "hearing disabilities" and their instructors have been made available free of charge. Since 1983, special education instructors have been trained by university programs to directly education students with "hearing disabilities". The Turkish Sign Language dictionary is stated to have been established and peer-reviewed, and training courses for trainers of TİD to have been organized. It is also stated that there must be at least one sign language interpreter provided by ASPB to each province, "ensuring that people with hearing disabilities benefit from all public services in equal terms with other citizens."Deaf Culture and Linguistic Identity
Article 30: This article states that cultural life, recreation, leisure and sport is to be made accessible to people with disabilities, but makes no acknowledgment to promoting deaf culture specifically, nor linguistic identity.Bilingual Education
Article 24: See summary of Article 24 under the "Sign Language Rights" section above.Lifelong Learning
Article 27: Vocational trainings are to be provided to persons with disabilities in inclusive environments, and civil servant examinations are to provide accommodations. However, there is no mention of how these are to be made inclusive, nor is there mention of accommodations to be made for the DHH community specifically. This article also highlights the rights that the disabled community have as employees, which are protected under labor laws.Accessibility
Article 9: This article summarizes the legislations that have been passed to make buildings, public spaces, and transportation accessible to persons with disabilities. The only mention of effort to promote accessibility for the DHH community specifically is that alongside efforts to make theEqual Employment Opportunities
Article 27: See summary of Article 27 under the "Lifelong Learning" section above.Equal Participation
Article 5: This article outlines Turkey's laws on equality and discrimination; the "state shall not discriminate against PwDs and fighting against discrimination shall form the basic principle of policies towards PwDs." Article 12: In 2010 and amendment was made to the constitution to include "disabled people" in Article 10 which states all that are equal before the law. Article 20: Entrance and guidance through buildings and mass transportation is to be made audio-visually accessible, including emergency warning systems. Since 2008, "Fair of Barrier Free Life" has existed as a platform for companies providing services and products for those with special needs or disabilities. Article 23: The only limitations to marriage in relation to the DHH community are if the person does not have the ability to discern, they are not legally allowed to marry. Sterilization of the disabled without consent is punishable by law. The government provides socio-economic support for parents with disabilities, as well as parents of children with disabilities—the extent of this support is not outlined. Article 24: See summary of Article 24 under the "Sign Language Rights" section above. Article 29: TheSign languages
As of February 19, 2025, the sign languages listed under Turkey in Ethnologe includeCentral Taurus Sign Language (CTSL)
CTSL is used by a shared-signing community consisting of three small villages in theMardin Sign Language (MarSL)
MarSL of theTurkish Sign Language (TİD)
TİD is a deaf community sign language, and is used by an estimated 166,000-333,000 deaf signers scattered across Turkey. There is dialectal variation between schools, due to it not being implemented in the classroom, but is intelligible by its users throughout the country.Language preservation, endangerment, and revitalization
Central Taurus Sign (CTSL)
Since CTSL is a relatively newer language, and currently being studied, it does not have an EGIDS level in Ethnologue. However, the language has been described by researchers as "on the edge of conventionalization." It has been documented that there is substantial variation in the vocabulary for objects and food items, whereas some vocabulary have relatively conventionalized sign. As the language is being studied and documented in its emergent stages of development, researchers are working to document the use of CTSL in effort to learn more about the language and its development. Documentation of the language is essential for its preservation, particularly since it may be at risk of endangerment if its usage is not continued in future generations.Mardin Sign Language (MarSL)
MarSL has the EGIDS status of 8b or "nearly-extinct" in Ethnologe, which indicates that "the only remaining users of the language are members of the grandparent generation or older who have little opportunity to use the language". The majority of DHH individuals of this shared-signing community have moved away from Mardin, and have assimilated with the national Turkish Deaf community causing aTurkish Sign Language (TİD)
TİD has the EGIDS status of 6a or "vigorous" in Ethnologe, which indicates that "the language is used for face-to-face communication by all generations and the situation is sustainable". As mentioned in the CRPD section, TİD is recognized as an official language of the country. Sign language services in Turkey are mostly found to serve users of TİD, as it is the predominant sign language of the region. In 2017 the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Service made the Turkish Sign Language Dictionary available online. The dictionary was compiled from 116 TİD native language users from 26 provinces of Turkey. There are varying degrees of native competence in TİD, due to varying levels of access to sign language for DHH individuals across the nation. Another aspect that affects the documentation of TİD, is that a majority of researchers are not native speaker, which may lead to inaccuracies in data analysis. While there are possible hinderances in language documentation, there have been many efforts to preserve the language, on a local scale amongst the DHH and hearing communities, as well as at an international level. The Turkish Sign Language Dictionary alone has been translated into English, and been access 2.7 million times since 2017 from 86 different countries. Particularly with the more recent utilization of AI and other technologies to promote language revitalization, there has been an increase in resources available to make language learning more accessible. One technological initiative is called BosphorusSign22k, which provides datasets for vision-based Sign Language Recognition in the domains of health, finance, and commonly used vocabulary with the goal of being utilized by computer vision and video recognition research and innovation. SignForDeaf is an AI-powered sign language translation system in Turkey, offering increased digital accessibility for the Turkish DHH community and a more inclusive digital environment. Sesim Elim is a smartphone app that is available for download which was developed to enhance TİD education, with the primary target audience of those without hearing loss, to promote communication with the TİD signing community. In addition to efforts to promote the usage of TİD, there have been initiative to increase visibility of Turkish Sign Language. The Dem Association (Dem Derneği) works to disseminate TİD through digital trainings of learning TİD, as well as working to raise awareness on subjects such as employment of the DHH as well as closed captioning availability.Universal newborn hearing screening
Since the end of 2003, Turkey has implemented a National Newborn Hearing Screening Program. As of 2020, it has been reported that 98% of newborns are screened through this program, with 5.1% of those screen referred for diagnostic follow-up; there is no data on what percentage are lost-to-follow-up. Per 1,000 babies, 3 are confirmed to have permanent childhood hearing loss. There is no data on the average age at which this diagnosis is provided for babies screened as infants, versus those that were not screened.Early intervention
As of 2020 in Turkey theReferences
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