Our Minister of Family and Social Services, Derya Yanık, announced that the Communication Centre for Persons with Hearing Impairment (AILEM), which was created to meet the communication needs of citizens with hearing impairment in the public, private sector and social lives, started to provide service.

Minister Derya Yanık stated that with the goal of 100% accessibility, the digital transformation and barrier-free communication necessary for persons with disabilities to access the services offered are continuing. In this context, Minister Yanık noting that they have implemented a new service for persons with hearing impairment to eliminate the problems arising from the communication barrier and to make their lives easier, said: “AILEM Accessible Communication Centre has started to provide service for our citizens with hearing impairment. With the special call centre we have established within the body of our Ministry, we aim to remove the communication barrier at any time and in case our citizens with hearing impairment need access to information in processes such as education, participation in social life, working life, learning and using legal rights, and benefiting from public services.”

Noting that the “AILEM” Barrier-Free Communication Centre started to operate with 8 Turkish Sign Language translators in the first place, Minister Yanık emphasized that the Centre will serve the citizens with hearing impairment in an effective, fast and reliable manner with a larger staff next year. Yanık said:

“Persons with hearing impairment may encounter problems in accessing communication, services and information. With our AILEM Accessible Communication Centre, we aim to meet the communication needs of all our citizens with hearing impairment that may arise at every stage of social life, independently of their families and close circles.

How does AILEM Accessible Communication Centre work?

AILEM Accessible Communication Centre provides uninterrupted service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

AILEM Accessible Communication Centre can be accessed via the "FAMILY" application icon on the website of our Ministry, as well as through the application to be installed on smartphones.

The application can be downloaded free of charge from the IOS mobile market through the link: https://apps.apple.com/tr/app/ailem-engelsiz-i-leti%C5%9Fim/id1629878567?l=tr.

With the said mobile application, users will be able to access the translators with one click from their personal phones and receive translation services.

All citizens with hearing impairment using Turkish Sign Language will be able to benefit from the AILEM Accessible Communication Centre.

Two-way service will be provided at the AILEM Accessible Communication Centre. With the 'telephone interpreting' service, which is one of the access models, the person with hearing impairment will notify the Turkish sign language interpreter in the call centre that he or she reaches via video call or message, and the interpreter will provide communication by calling the desired person or institution according to the demand. Interviews will be recorded during the process. 

Another video service model to be provided from the communication centre will be the "Remote Turkish Sign Language Interpretation" service. In this service model, the Turkish Sign Language translator will carry out the dialogue between the person with hearing impairment and another person in the same environment, and thus the communication problem will be eliminated.