Disability rights activism in Turkey: A qualitative study on disabled activists

Disabled individuals, who have been subject to discrimination, oppression and exclusion throughout history, first started to organize for their rights in the United States and United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s. Disabled activists have struggled to ensure that disabled people can use their rights and freedoms on an equal basis with everyone, using various strategies such as protests, lobbying, and legal remedies. Disabled activists carried out activities with the slogan Nothing About Us Without Us. The disability rights movement, which has developed at different times and in different ways in various countries, has achieved various international achievements such as the signing of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Although there were various efforts of disability associations in Turkey until the 2000s, activist struggles similar to those in the USA and UK did not take place. In the 2000s, developments such as the process of harmonization with the European Union and the signing of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities brought the rights of the disabled to the agenda. Disabled individuals who defined themselves as activists started to establish or take part in rights-based associations in these years or started to act individually. In this research, it is aimed to understand the activism experiences of disabled individuals who are activists in Turkey in depth. In this research, which was carried out with the qualitative research method, online in-depth interviews were used as the data collection technique. Online in-depth interviews were conducted via Zoom with a total of 12 disabled activists, whose ages range from the twenties to the fifties. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed using the MAXQDA program. As a result of the analysis, the themes reached regarding the twelve research questions of the research were shared in the findings section.