Place : Kule (Tower) 2. Floor

Date : 31.10.2018

Time : 17:30 – 20:30

Moderator : İdil Seda Ak

Participants : Beyza Ünal, Didem Tekeli, Bülent Küçükarsalan, Zeynep Aycan

Language : Turkish

Purpose and Content:

Independent Life is an understanding based on enabling disabled individuals to choose the sort of support they need in line with their needs as “disabled person” lie at the center of this understanding. In an examination of the disability movements around the world would, the following motto stands out in the defense of the right to an independent living: Nothing About Us, Without Us! You may ask “What do you mean by that?” This might be an explanation:
According to the Independent Living concept, an individual obtains the support services he/she needs in line with his/her own demands, preferences and choices, and has a control and say on daily life like all the individuals of the society. And the most important point is that it applies to all people with disabilities regardless of the level of support they need.
In this panel, we have come together to understand the right to independent living with various dimensions, to have an idea about the participation of disabled people in decision-making and to discuss what can be done for the integration of the right to independent living into working life. We look forward to seeing you join us and help us enrich our discussions in the light of your views.

Didem Tekeli

Didem Tekeli is working with civil society organisations for more than a decade. Building their capacity in general and their advocacy capacity, in particular, was her interest along with project design and management. She still works on these topics in her capacity as advisor of national and international civil society organisations.
Didem, is an International Relations graduate and conducted graduate research in Ankara and Middle East Technical University, visited universities in Italy and UK as a researcher studying European Integration and Türkiye-EU relations. She researched and participated in academic summer schools about International Human Rights Law and the rights of persons with disabilities. She collaborated with disabled persons’ organisations and activists from Türkiye.
Didem studied UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities when she was working for Human Rights in Mental Health Initiative Association (Ruh Sağlığı’nda İnsan Hakları Girişimi Derneği – RUSİHAK) between the years 2013-2016. She especially worked on Article 12 of the Convention and launched, with her colleagues, the first Turkish blog on the Article: madde12.org

Beyza Ünal

She graduated from Psychology Department in Middle East Technical University in 2010. Following, she completed her master’s and doctoral studies in clinical psychology program at the same university. Within the scope of her doctoral dissertation, she studied the effects of physically disabled people’s perceptions regarding the appearance and functionality of their bodies on their interpersonal relationships. Currently, she works as a clinical psychologist in private practice in Ankara. Also, she is a board member in two disability-rights organizations: one is the Youth Network of European Network on Independent Living, which defends disabled people’s right to live independently across Europe, and the other is the Association of Women with Disabilities, which fights against multiple discrimination that disabled girls and women face in a regular basis. In this context, she frequently makes presentations in different events on disability, disability rights, the right to live independently, body image and sexuality.

Bülent Küçükaslan

Bülent Küçükaslan is the executive editor of engelliler.biz online platform. He has a wheelchair user since 1999. He tries to contribute disability movements in Türkiye with his works and writings about disability studies.

Zeynep Aycan

Aycan is a Professor of Koc University with dual-appointment in the Department of
Psychology and Faculty of Management. Her area of expertise is Industrial, Work and
Organizational Psychology. She is the founder and academic director of the Leadership Lab at
Koc University. Aycan’s research focuses on the impact of culture on human resource
management practices, leadership, and career development of women.
Aycan received her BA and MA degrees from Bogazici University. She conducted
doctoral and post-doctoral studies at Queen’s University, Kingston and McGill University,
respectively.
Aycan published 5 book and more than 80 research articles and book chapters. She is one
of the higly cited social scientists. Her 2014 book received the Best Leadership Book of the Year
from Chartered Management Institute (London).
Aycan visited Harvard University, Aston University (UK), Oxford European School of
Management (UK), Bordeaux University (France), Tartu School of Management (Estonia), and
Renmin University of China as a scholar or lecturer.