Evaluation of theconcept of social justice in the employment of disabled people in the context of John Rawls' justice approach: A qualitative research on the EKPSS example

Disability is a phenomenon that has always existed in all societies from past to present. A person who is faced with the possibility of being disabled at any stage of his life should recognize the disability and the disabled person, include them in society through social inclusion, and ensure that the necessary arrangements are made for all members of the society to access the fundamental rights and freedoms they have. At this stage, the way for disabled individuals to live a decent and dignified life is to be included in working life. EKPSS, which took its current form with the constitutional regulations regarding working life and employment, is one of the applications made to enable disabled individuals to obtain this right. EKPSS, which is organized as an important field of employment, seems fair in terms of providing equal opportunities for disabled individuals and preparing their levels according to the type of disability. The aim of this research is to examine the regulations of EKPSS, which is made to provide equal opportunities to disadvantaged individuals, to determine to what extent disabled individuals benefit from this exam according to their disability levels, and to obtain information about the problems they experience. In this regard, in the study conducted using qualitative research method, the opinions of 15 disabled individuals were taken and semi-structured interview technique was used in the interviews. John Rawls' approach to justice constitutes the theoretical framework of the study, in which the obtained data are coded with the MAXQADA 2024 program and interpreted with the code matrix and code-sub-code model tools. The findings were examined in the light of the approach that advocates that the most disadvantaged segments who have difficulty in accessing resources should receive the most benefit. As a result, according to the opinions of the participants, EKPSS has regulations that lead to unfair competition within itself, they are uncomfortable with many different types and levels of disabilities being tested under the same categories, and they are uncomfortable with disabled individuals. It was concluded that this exam, which was designed to include students in working life, was abused. In this regard, this study was found important in terms of contributing to the production of alternative regulations and policies so that the exam can provide the highest level of benefit for disadvantaged individuals.