People with disabilities have been demonstrating that nothing can stop you if you are determined to achieve your dreams ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which is marked on Dec. 3.
According to Celil Uzun, a lawyer who is visually and hearing impaired: "A disabled person needs to have a profession. Families should support their children to the fullest. Being disabled does not prevent us from having a profession"
Uzun, 33, who was born visually impaired and was found to have hearing loss at the age of 11, works as a lawyer in the Provincial Directorate of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change in Rize. Uzun, who has been practicing his profession for about 3 1/2 years, decided to become a lawyer after learning the life story of a visually impaired lawyer at his aunt's workplace during his primary school years. Supported by his family, he moved with them from Rize to Izmir to study law and started to practice the profession he had dreamed of since childhood.
Sharing more about his education and working life, Uzun said that he met Gültekin Yazgan, one of the first visually impaired lawyers in Türkiye, during his high school years, and that Yazgan's successful graduation from Ankara Law Faculty in the 1950s, when technological opportunities were not as developed as they are now, inspired him. Stating that disabled people need someone to read documents for them at that time, Uzun said, "It was enough for me to find a scanner, find a computer, read a printed document. That's how I read my textbooks." Expressing that the accessibility in courthouses and many other institutions needs to be improved, he said that there are not enough guided floors.
Gülşen Timur Sevim, a 27-year-old trainee lawyer who is married and has a 3-year-old daughter, said that she completely lost her sight when she was 5 years old as a result of meningitis and found no cure for her vision loss. "I am a fighter, I accepted my disability and aim to achieve what I dream of and I am very happy with the way I am. It is a bigger source of pride to have a lawyer identity in this way," she expressed.
Sevim noted that in order to raise awareness and break prejudices, visually impaired people should focus more on professions that are respected in this type of society, as she broke the common prejudice that a blind person cannot be a lawyer.
The world is full of motivation, one such source is a visually impaired father who has become a ray of light in the dark as he continues his studies at university despite his disability. Cihan Dinçer, 38, was born in Zonguldak with congenital vascular dryness and lost his eyesight. He went to see many doctors but found no cure. In 1996, he went to Germany but received a negative response to his treatment. Dinçer, who survived with the support of his family until 2008, married a 26-year-old Özlem Dinçer who became his world. The couple became parents to Efnan, 12, and Duhan Kadir, 7, after a 15-year marriage. With the support of his children, Dinçer clings to life. He teaches his children and started his university in the Social Security Department in an open university despite his visual disability by listening to audio lessons.
Dinçer, who wants society to be conscious about people with disabilities, wants the disabled to be remembered every day instead of only on Dec. 3. "Thank God I have a supportive family. They support me in everything. They stand by me. They help me with my homework. My wife helps. My children also help. I help my children with their lessons. We solve trials with my daughter. When their lessons are over, we move on to my lessons. This is how we complement and complete each other," he explained.
"In my opinion, we must be remembered and celebrated every day not only on Dec. 3. I want society to be conscious of the disabled. When I bump into someone outside, instead of saying 'Why are you hitting me?' I would like them to be conscious." Dinçer also thanked the management of the Turkish Disability Association Zonguldak Branch for their continuous support.
