Konya Metropolitan Municipality provides "Awareness and Empathy Training" to bus drivers providing public transportation services throughout the year.
Within the scope of the application, bus drivers who serve within the Metropolitan Municipality or have just started their duties attend training at bus stops at different points of the city.
Drivers arriving at a predetermined bus stop put themselves in the shoes of disabled passengers by using eye patches or wheelchairs. After completing their preparations, the drivers board the bus and travel with a companion. Drivers who complete their training then go to work in their relevant units to apply their experience.
“EDUCATION CREATED A REAL AWARENESS”
Ali Muştu, one of the public transportation bus drivers working within Konya Metropolitan Municipality, said that the training creates real awareness in terms of understanding disabled citizens. Muştu put himself in the shoes of a walking disabled person and stated that he travels in a wheelchair and said, “I will show as much attention as I can to our disabled passengers. I will be more careful when loading and unloading the vehicle. "We were already treating them well, but from now on I will treat them better." said.
Another bus driver, Faruk Kıyanç, reminded that every healthy citizen is a disabled candidate and said, “I understood them better when I sat in the wheelchair. We do not want to cause them any difficulties due to their disabilities. “We will provide them with better service as much as we can.” he said.
“WE NEED TO REMEMBER THAT WE ARE DISABLED CANDIDATES TOO”
Driver Ümit Atlı also stated that they approach disadvantaged passengers with interest, but that they can provide better service thanks to awareness training and added:
“In this application, I played a visually impaired citizen. As a result of our practice, we realized that we need to pay more attention to disabled individuals. It was a useful application. It is necessary to understand those people, too. "As a society, when we see disabled people, we need to remember that we are also disabled candidates."
THANKS TO THE PRESIDENT ALTAY
Mustafa Karaca, Konya Branch President of the Turkish Association of the Visually Impaired, thanked Konya Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Uğur İbrahim Altay for the training and said:
“Public transportation is very important for us. Since we cannot use our personal vehicle, we go everywhere by public transportation. It is nice that the buses have been renewed and are suitable for the use of disabled individuals and that the bus network is wide. Public transportation is available to almost every neighborhood and every point. This is good for Konya, it really has a very developed transportation network. The drivers are sensitive, I have not encountered any negative situations so far. Being better understood through education gives happiness. First of all, we offer our respects to our esteemed President. We know that there is more to be done. He also has a lot more to do. We thank him for his work and services. We believe that it will continue to expand and increase its services.”