Turkey’s Changemakers: Burada engellendim.com platform fights against the architectural barriers

Sabancı Foundation Turkey’s Changemakers Program continues in its 5th season to share the unique stories of extraordinary people who contribute to the social development. The tenth Changemaker of the 5th season is “Buradaengellendim.com” project which implemented by the “The Spinal Cord Paralytics Association of Turkey”.

Buradaengellendim.com is a web platform which is set up to ensure that everyone takes a role in removing the architectural barriers that make lives of people with disabilities difficult. Buradaengellendim.com, established by the Spinal Cord Paralytics Association of Turkey, aims to document the barriers on streets with pictures, make sure the related municipality takes responsibility and remove the barriers ultimately.

Buradaengellendim.com project also tries to prepare public institutions for the Law 5378, Disability Act which was postponed until 2015. The Spinal Cord Paralytics Association of Turkey believes that the most important reason of the physical barriers is that municipalities license projects which do not comply with the universal standards. With the platform, municipalities are invited to cooperate for not issuing license to such projects.

On the Buradaengellendim.com platform, citizens upload the pictures of barriers they come across on the street and public institutions. Officials at the Spinal Cord Paralytics Association of Turkey notify municipalities about these barriers and ask them to remove the barriers.

So far, 833 pictures were shared on the platform and almost 100 barriers were removed. The project has Facebook and Twitter pages, and an iPhone application as well.