Yakup, who works at Bilecik Provincial Directorate of National Education, lives alone in Bilecik and apart from his family in İzmir due to his job. Like every disabled citizen, he struggles with important problems in daily life. After losing his sight 9 years ago, he realized that technology companies do not care about the visually impaired and he has been an activist on the subject since then.
Making a call to technology companies to solve the problems faced by the disabled, Gençtürk argues that more R&D studies should be done on accessibility.
We quote his statements from his own mouth: “As the visually impaired, we cannot benefit enough from technological innovations.”
“Of course, the fact that we do not see it is the main reason for this situation. However, while a company is developing a product, it imposes features that appeal to all segments of the society, but the disabled are ignored while developing these features.
For example, we have serious problems because there are no voice applications in white goods, air conditioners, combi boilers, televisions and other home appliances, smart phones. Since there is no audio application on the televisions, we do not know which channel is the channel we are on, we cannot set or list the channel without help, and we cannot benefit from various features of the television such as accessing the internet. ”
“We are seriously concerned about the future as televisions are being integrated into the internet every day.”
We cannot benefit from platforms such as Exxen and Netflix in any way. Of course, we do not want to see the screen, but we want to benefit from the television, even if it is only with sound. In the meantime, some channels are making narrations with audio descriptions in movies or TV series. Make sure there are no visually impaired people using that service. Because those descriptive narratives speak more than the characters in the movie, and after a certain point, one says ‘let me listen to this movie for a moment’.
“White goods do not appeal to us in any way. Again, we can use some of them with the keys to a certain extent, but we are completely stuck with touch-sensitive ones.”
“The latest products are always made with touchscreen. I would like you to know that the fact that these demands are not met has nothing to do with the cost. For example, I have a watch on my wrist right now and when I press the button on this watch, it says what time it is. Moreover, this watch is not a smart watch. It is a simple watch that can be found for 150 TL. However, while these watches are being made, no voice application is installed on the smart watches on the market, so no one in their right mind would believe that it has anything to do with cost.
There are a couple of companies that produce white goods for the visually impaired, but they are also very, very limited. For example, the company that produces ten new models this year produces two for the disabled. I would not say ‘I want a product with this feature, not this feature’. Also, if the company says ‘I am not producing next year’, there is nothing we can do.
However, a system like smart phones needs to be developed. All smartphones have an audio application and we never worry when buying a phone, ‘I wonder if this phone appeals to the visually impaired’. Because we know that they all have it and it is only necessary to activate it in a simple way.
In fact, I changed my phone in the past months and did not ask anyone, ‘Is this model suitable for the visually impaired?’ This method should be used in all products. In other words, all devices should have accessibility feature, enable it when necessary, and disable it when not needed. ”
“The often repeated idea that ‘the problems of disabled people will be solved as technology develops’ is extremely wrong.”
“Because there was no need to access the Internet from televisions in the past. Now you can do almost all of the work that a computer can do on television. However, we are adversely affected by this development as the disabled are ignored while these developments are being made.”
“The only reason why companies do not fulfill these demands is that people with disabilities are viewed as potential beggars in the society in general.”
“When I say this, people say, ‘Is it okay, estağfurullah,’ but rest assured, this is a bitter truth. This is the reason why some beggars disguise themselves as disabled. Why don’t beggars disguise themselves as disabled people? Companies also look at the society emotionally, and we say ‘Let’s share emotionally on certain days and weeks instead of doing R&D.’ This is easier.
Some companies come together with some NGO officials these days and take pictures with one or two disabled people and share them from their accounts. It is presented to the society under the name of ‘we care about the disabled’. It also helps OSTKs with a few thousand liras as a share of silence, and they remain silent. ”
“We can’t make enough use of small household appliances such as scales, kitchen scales, thermometers, and ovens.”
“Moreover, it is easier to install voice applications on these than others. In fact, I was born and bred from Izmir and in the nineties there were scales the size of a cupboard at the Izmir fair. When you put a coin in it and step on it, it would write our weight on the screen and say it aloud. However, none of the small home appliance brands on the market today can be found on their scales. It doesn’t have this feature in its scales either.”
“These problems are not only in our country, but all over the world. Even the world’s largest technology companies treat people with disabilities as potential beggars.”
“Therefore, we disabled people cannot benefit from technological development sufficiently. I’m sure I have more to say, but I don’t want to prolong it any longer.”
We, as Webtekno, make a call to technology companies to take steps in this direction. The quality of life for millions of people with disabilities can be much better with simple additions and enhancements.
You can reach Yakup Gençtürk on his Instagram account.
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