At the initiative of the General Directorate of Disability and Elderly Services, the "Yesterday's Tomorrow of Turkish Sign Language" Panel was organized online on September 23rd.

In the opening speech of the online panel titled Yesterday's Tomorrow of Turkish Sign Language, Dr. Orhan KOÇ, General Director of Disability and Elderly Services, stated that civil society organizations working in the field are acting together and closely following the processes of taking protective, preventive measures in coordination with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Family and Labor Social Services and universities.

General Director of Disability and Elderly Services  Dr. Orhan KOÇ, Family, Labor and Social Services Ministry employed within the center of 3, 38 provinces in the province, including 52 people across the country, including a total of 55 Sign Language Interpreters, said that the personnel in question support the ministry by translating the communication needs of deaf citizens coming to other public institutions and organizations.

Sign Language Interpreter Needs By Public with Proficiency Exam to Be Employment

Dr. KOÇ; According to the world federation of hearing impaired people, there are 72 million hearing impaired people worldwide, more than 80 percent of these individuals live in developing countries, they care about accessibility as a Ministry, access to information is the most fundamental right, they cooperate with Ankara University in employing sign language interpreters that are needed in the public sector in order to benefit from these basic rights of the deaf, the public sign language interpreter gap will be closed with the proficiency exam to be given through TÖMER, he said.

Pointing out that the ministry is very sensitive in solving the problem of access for the deaf and cares, Dr. Orhan KOÇ, General Director of Disability and Elderly Services, said that intensive work is being carried out to translate all the contents on the internet web page into sign language.

Faik YILDIRIM, deputy general Director of Disabled Elderly Services, moderator of the "Yesterday's Day of Turkish Sign Language" panel, noted that it is very important to carry out this event on September 23rd's World Sign Languages Day, that stakeholder organizations are coordinating to overcome the problems experienced by the deaf during the pandemia process, and that The General Directorate also has sign language for the disabled in mindfulness studies for all disabled people.  YILDIRIM then promised Cihan NIŞANCI, head of the Call Services and Communication Department of the Ministry of Health.

 "My Voice IS ESİM"

NIŞANCI thanked the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services for their pioneering efforts in serving the General Directorate of Disability and Elderly Services with sign language for the deaf. Hearing screening tests for newborn infants are performed without disruption, newborn hearing screening tests can be performed more widely compared to the past, each year around 3500 newborn babies' hearing impedider is determined by hearing screening test, he said.

After the established unimedied Health Communication Center, especially hearing impaired individuals' access to health services has been distanced, people with disabilities have largely solved communication problems in health organizations, "My voice is ESİm" with the password of the free Unimed Health Communication Center ESIM MOBILE application, minimizing the communication problem between physician and hearing impaired individuals, diagnosis and treatment processes work more healthily, he said.

ESIM Project was developed by the Ministry of Health to connect our deaf citizens to life in emergency situations, with the project, disabled citizens can report immediately to 112 Emergency Services with one button through mobile applications developed using the current state-of-the-art technology that they will download free of charge to their personal phones, even seconds are of great importance in emergency cases, he added.

Cihan NIŞANCI, head of the Department of Call Services and Communication at the Ministry of Health, evaluated the presentation of Disabled Elderly Services Deputy General Director Faik YILDIRIM, access to health services, like all individuals is vital for the deaf, especially during the pandemia process of the Ministry of Health has largely solved the communication problem of the deaf pointed out.

Course Curriculum and Related Teaching Materials were added to Turkish Sign Language at the Ministry of National Education

Kürşat DULKADIR, head of the Department of Programs and Teaching Materials of the Ministry of National Education, which was promised later, celebrated 'World Sign Languages Day' on September 23rd.  Ministry course curriculum and related teaching materials are added to Turkish Sign Language, especially for deaf students studying in formal educational institutions under the Ministry of National Education, In this context, around 4000 course content has been translated into sign language, they are focused on mobile applications, a series of programs have been prepared to teach Turkish Sign Language to people of hearing impaired reading age at TRT EBA, and thousands of course materials have been opened up in line with the agreement between the World Bank and the Ministry of National Education.

After completing the speech of Kürşat DULKADIR, head of the Department of Programs and Educational Materials of the Ministry of National Education, Hulusi Armagan YILDIRIM, head of the Social and Economic Life Participation Department of the General Directorate of Disability and Elderly Services, gave information about the work for the deaf. He noted the function of sign language interpreters so that the deaf in the public sector do not have problems accessing information and public services. On April 29, 2020, the National Professional Standards of Sign Language Interpreting were issued by the Vocational Qualifications Authority and the Professional Qualifications Authority for the implementation of standards that are very important for the profession.

Following the presentations of the representatives of the ministry, representatives of the NGO and the University conveyed their wishes and wishes.    Faik YILDIRIM, Deputy General Director of Disability and Elderly Services, who made a general assessment of the presentation contents and solution proposals at the end of the panel, said that the meeting "Yesterday's Tomorrow of Turkish Sign Language" meeting was meaningful on September 23rd.  He thanked the participants for their contributions.

YILDIRIM stated that the 'Current Turkish Sign Language Dictionary' in use is based on the Turkish Sign Language Compiled from 26 different provinces of Turkey and 116 TID native language talkers, and that all content in the dictionary designed online based on video is available in two different languages: Turkish Sign Language and Turkish.  In order to provide services to all students who are studying in turkish sign language schools, educators who provide Turkish Sign Language Education in the field, "Current Turkish Sign Language Dictionary" is available to users online on the http://tidsozluk.net/tr/ web page, providing access to a total of 2,666,679 times from 89 different countries from the date of publication of the dictionary until August 2020, he said.