Visually impaired individual Yakup Gençtürk made an important call to technology companies to “make everything more accessible”. When you read about the situations he complains about, you will empathize with people with disabilities much better.
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 realized that tech companies don’t care about the visually impaired and has been an activist on the subject ever since.
On solving the problems faced by people with disabilities making a call to technology companies Gençtürk argues that more R&D studies should be done on accessibility.
We quote his explanations from his own mouth: “As the visually impaired, we cannot benefit enough from technological innovations.”
“Of course, the fact that we don’t 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 disabled people 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 televisions, we do not know which channel we are on, we cannot set or list channels without assistance, and we cannot benefit from various features of television such as accessing the internet.
“We are also 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 speaks more than the characters in the movie And after a certain point, people say, ‘Shut up and let me listen to this movie’.
“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 touchscreen ones.”
“Latest products are always made with touchscreen. These demands are not met. I want you to know that it has nothing to do with cost. For example, right now I have a watch on my wrist and when I press the button on this watch, it tells audibly what time it is. Moreover, this watch is not a smart watch. A simple watch that can be found online for 100-150 liras. However, while these watches are being made, a voice application is not installed on the smart watches on the market. So no one in their right mind would believe it had anything to do with cost.
Manufacturer of white goods for the visually impaired there are a couple of companies 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 voice apps And we don’t worry at all when buying a phone, ‘I wonder if this phone is for 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?’ In all products This method must be used. In other words, all devices should have the accessibility feature, enable it when necessary, and disable it when not needed.”
“The often-repeated idea that ‘the problems of people with disabilities will be solved as technology improves’ 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, while these developments are being made, Disabled people are ignored We are negatively affected by this development.”
“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? Firms also look at society emotionally, so do we. ‘Instead of doing R&D, let’s share emotionally on certain days and weeks’ says. This comes 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’. He also helps OSTKs with a few thousand liras as a share of silence, and they keep 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 a voice application on these than others. In fact, I was born and raised in 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. small appliances brands None of them have this feature on their scales or scales.”
“These problems are not just in our country, but all over the world. Even the world’s largest technology companies treat people with disabilities as potential beggars.”
“So we disabled people We can’t make enough use of technological development. 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.