Studies for disabled people in the Rebuplic of Turkey (1950-2000)

STUDIES FOR DISABLED PEOPLE IN THE REBUPLIC OF TURKEY (1950-2000) Selman DEVECİOĞLU Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Institute of Social Sciences Depertment of History, Master's thesis September, 2024 Supervisor: Associate professor Haşim ERDOĞAN ABSTRACT Today, where physical, spiritual and social well-being is a necessity for every individual in society, ensuring social integration by protecting disabled people can be shown as the most important prerequisite for being a social state. It is known that disability is among the important public policies in our country, as well as all over the world. Although policies towards disabled people have been among the important trump cards of governments both historically and today, it is very difficult to say that concrete steps have been taken. The main purpose of this study is to examine the policies of governments towards disabled people from the Republican period to our recent history. Considering the current problems of disabled individuals, it is known that disability problems are not only individual, but also medical, social, economic and cultural problems. As a result of the study, although it is not possible to say that important steps were taken towards disabled people in the period examined, it was observed that especially after 1990, policies towards disabled people were shaped and institutional structuring was formed in our country. Key Words: Disability, Disability Policies, Disability Rights and Government Policies