About Us
Our History
A group of visually impaired students from Boğaziçi University came together on 1 November 1988 and laid the foundations of the Turkish Beyazay Association. Gathering in order to develop themselves, strengthen their values and pass on what they knew to others without holding anything back, the young people at first continued their activities as a working group with no legal identity.
As participation grew by the day in activities that at first took the form of reading books together, watching films, holding discussions with writers and organising picnics and outings, and as needs became more varied, the move was made towards a legal structure.
In 1992, on 7 March, the Beyazay Working Group gained its legal identity and took the name Beyazay Association for the Visually Impaired. With the completion of the legal process, activities for people with disabilities also gathered pace. Alongside the library and social activities, English and university preparation courses were run with volunteer teachers, a sock production course was held jointly with what was then called the Labour and Employment Agency, and Qur'an courses were run with the mufti's office.
Aware of the shortcomings in the education of people with disabilities, Beyazay opened Türkiye's first computer laboratory for visually impaired people on 1 September 1992. The course attracted intense interest from visually impaired people. As a result of the course, hundreds of people with disabilities were introduced to the world of information technology.
Believing in the need to convey to the public the intellectual accumulation in the field of disability, Beyazay also pioneered various initiatives serving this purpose. The cassette magazine entitled “A Step from Darkness into Light”, prepared for visually impaired people, and Beyazay Magazine began publication. The magazines, published every two months, and the programmes broadcast on various radio stations served as an important bridge between people with disabilities and the public.
In 2007, Beyazay's attainment of public benefit association status also set in motion a process of fundamental change. The association's name was changed to Turkish Beyazay Association. It widened its field of service by adding all disability groups to its target audience alongside visually impaired people.
Widely appreciated by people with disabilities for its activities, Beyazay went beyond the boundaries of Istanbul and became a beacon of hope for people with disabilities in Anatolia too. Growing rapidly in a short time, the Turkish Beyazay Association began opening branches one after another in Antalya, İzmir, Erzurum, Sivas and Ankara. Today, with 80 branches across Türkiye and 8 abroad, the Turkish Beyazay Association supports people with disabilities and those in need who are awaiting help beyond the country's borders as much as those living in our own country.
The Turkish Beyazay Association has delivered the projects Overcoming Barriers with Online Education, Walking Together, Education Overcomes Every Barrier, The Future of Blindness, Turquoise: Disability Knows No Borders, Be Enlightened Enlighten Others, Careers for People with Disabilities, ee-Commerce and Mobile Communication for All. In parallel with changing conditions, alongside the projects it runs nationwide it has also completed the Training for Relatives of People with Disabilities Project, supported by the European Union, providing employment for the relatives of people with disabilities.
In the painting competition launched nationwide under the slogan This Canvas Is Yours, the aim was to bring young people with disabilities together with art.
For the first time in Türkiye, the Eurecert Certificate began to be awarded to venues through the cooperation of the Turkish Beyazay Association and the Eukoba Association. The authority to issue the document showing that public and private institutions, parks — in short, living spaces — have become accessible for people with disabilities and older people rests in our country with the Turkish Beyazay Association alone.
Setting itself ever greater goals, the Turkish Beyazay Association has, through its services across borders, also become a beacon of hope for people with disabilities in North Macedonia, Kosovo and Tatarstan. Providing material and educational support to people with disabilities living there, the association continues its efforts to open branches abroad with the understanding that service knows no borders. Advancing towards becoming an organisation operating worldwide, the Turkish Beyazay Association continues its work with the aim of being a source of hope for people with disabilities and of raising their education and quality of life, through the projects it creates and delivers.
Vision – Mission
The vision of the Turkish Beyazay Association encompasses all work relating to education aimed at changing the outlook of people with disabilities, their relatives, those who serve them and society as a whole towards disability.
Our Mission
- The education of people with disabilities.
- To protect and advance the social, cultural, economic, legal, professional and similar rights and interests of people with disabilities.
- To ensure the employment of people with disabilities and their integration into social life, and to enable them to benefit in the true sense from human rights and freedoms.
- To work towards ending discrimination against people with disabilities and helping them become enterprising, productive, effective and successful individuals in their lives; and to build social solidarity.
- To establish mutual love and respect between people with disabilities and society; to contribute to raising individuals who are healthy in mind and body and to ensure their rehabilitation.
- To carry out every kind of work to eliminate the causes and consequences that lead to disability, and to build social solidarity.
Areas of Work
The Turkish Beyazay Association addresses all people with disabilities — those with visual, hearing and speech, physical, intellectual and chronic illness-related disabilities. Beyond this, the relatives of people with disabilities, the relevant institutions and society at large form a broad target audience in terms of awareness-raising and information work.
The Turkish Beyazay Association's field of service is gathered under 5 main headings.
1. Educational Work
2. Information and Awareness Work
3. Awareness-Raising Work
4. Support Services
5. International Work