An examination of disability and employment policy in Turkey through the perspectives of disability non-governmental organisations and policy-makers

Abstract

This article examines disability and employment policy in Turkey after the country’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009 through the perspectives of disability non-governmental organisations (disability NGOs) and policy-makers. Drawing on an exploratory qualitative study, the article analyses how disability NGOs and key policy-makers perceive the impact of this development on disability and employment policy. The article shows disability NGO representatives and policy-makers find the employment policy’s over-reliance on the quota method inadequate to put the human rights model into practice. They call for greater policy emphasis on accessibility and effective anti-discrimination enforcement to complement the quota method, which reflects the idea that the human rights model has gained wider acceptance among them. The article, however, also reveals that disability NGOs and policy-makers hold divergent views on what constitutes a human rights approach to disability employment, especially concerning segregation in employment.

Keywords:

• Disability non-governmental organisations
• disabled people
• employment
• human rights approach
• the employment quota
• Turkey

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express special thanks of gratitude to the Social Policy Forum researcher Anıl Gencelli who provided with great assistance during this research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Horizon 2020 Framework Programme. This publication is part of the ETHOS research program funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 727112.