Partners

TURKISH DEAF CONFEDERATION

The purpose of the Confederation is the protection of the economic, social, cultural, occupational and similar rights and the development of such rights for the Deaf; working in coordination with federations under its roof; working about raising the awareness and accessibility; ensuring deaf individuals undertake research, and find solutions to practice their basic rights and liberties within framework of national and international laws applicable in Turkey; cooperating with relevant ministries, media and communication organizations thereby ensuring that the deaf society access information alongside their social and fundamental rights. The Confederation has participated in various international and national educational and research projects as project leader or consortium partner. The fundamental areas of expertise and work of the Confederation include: raising awareness about international rights ensured by United Nation Organization and sub-organizations for the deaf to the benefit in Turkey; the Confederation participates in international organizations or entities related to the deaf as principal or joint members and cooperates for the realization of works in line with common purposes, produces common projects; holds meetings, panels and symposiums; cooperates with all education institutions active in education of the Turkish deaf; works in increasing literacy, accessibility to media and digital environment; organizes common camps with similar purpose organizations and entities abroad for the vitalization of Deaf youth and so on.

Researchers from the Turkish Deaf Confederation

       - Orkun Utsukarcı

He has worked in various positions in organizations of the deaf:President of the arts and culture unit of the Deaf Association,1995; Establishment of the Turkish Deaf Arts, Culture Association,1998-2001; Head of arts and culture unit of the administrative board of the TNDFederation, 2004-2007, 2010-2013; Organization of 3 and 4th Deaf Arts and Culture Festival, 2005-2006; Establishment of the Deaf Youth Council, 2011; Organization of TNDF Turkish Culture and Arts Festival, 2013; Organization of the School, Sports Workshop of the Istanbul Göztepe School for the Deaf; Preparation of TSL videos, 2014; Provision of sign language training for the İstanbul State Theatre for staging of drama; Establishment of the Turkish Deaf Confederation in 2015-today; Participation in robotics training provided by the Ankara Development Agency Project, 2019; Establishment of the 112 Emergency Call centre for the Deaf with the Ministry of the Interior; Participant in the Radio and Television Higher Council drafting of a directive for accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing, 2019; Work on the drafting of the National Proficiency Council (MYK) sign language proficiency and conducting a workshop, 2020.

- Doğan Özdemir

He has been the founder or a board member of various deaf organizations:Kocaeli Deaf Association founder, board member;Kocaeli Deaf Sport Club founder, Board Member;Turkish National Federation of the Deaf president, board member;Turkish Deaf Sport Clubs Federation President, board member;Turkish Deaf Sport Federation (GO) vice president, CISS (Deaflympics) board member; EDSO general.

- Hasan Dikyuva

He is a deaf academic who has conducted extensive research and written on Turkish sign language.He is an author of the official Turkish Sign Language Grammar Book, the co-author of the official Turkish Sign Language online Dictionary and continues his academic career as a trainer and researcher at Koç University.He has worked as a project Coordinator of Turkish National Federation of the Deaf and published on Aspectual non-manual expressions in Turkish Sign Language, village sign language communities, deaf fieldwork researchers in professional dialogue, and Turkish sign language training.He has also been a speaker at major world conferences on sign language and the Deaf community such as:World Deaf Congress, ECML Workshop, SIGN7 Conference, EuroBabel Project Final Conference, 30th Annual Conference, Centre for Deaf Studies, Bristol University,UK.

- Assoc. Prof. Ayşe Şirin Okyayuz

She is a trainer and researcher at the Hacettepe University Department of Translation and Interpreting.She has published articles on audiovisual and literary translation and AVT training in academic journals and contributed to international book chapters.She is the author of books on AVT practices and training in Turkey, a co-author of a book on AVT history, practice and training in Turkey, and author to a book to which she contributes a chapter on her studies on remakes.In addition, she has translated children books, novels, short stories, drama for the stage, and books on politics and philosophy.She served as an advisory member of the Radio and Television Supreme Council negotiationmeetings for the implementation of the media accessibility practices.

ISTINYE UNIVERSITY

Istinye University (ISU) was established in 2015 by the 21st Century Anatolian Foundation as an affiliation of the MLP Care Group with knowledge and experience of 25 years in medicine and education. The university with around 500 academicians and 12,000 students has the vision of being a science and research center and utilizing scientific findings for social welfare and offering quality and accessible services to society. Aiming for excellence in education, research, innovation, and technology development, and with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and digitalization, it engages itself in generating new information and information-based technologies to be used as solutions to local and universal problems. The university is ranked in the first 201- 300 universities in the University Impact Rankings announced by the international higher education ranking organization Times Higher Education (THE), which aims to measure the value universities add to the sustainable development of societies and social impact they create. The university has a Center for Teaching/learning Excellence which works to keep the school as a 'learning university' and help academics and students acquire latest educational skills. The Center also aims to produce innovations by carrying out research studies and utilizing research results worldwide. It tries to manage innovation by incorporating the latest technologies.

Researchers from ISU

- Assist. Prof. Ülkü Kölemen (Coordinator)

Assist Prof Dr Ülkü Kölemen, the coordinator of the EDUSIGN &SIGNEDU project, holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics. She has carried out research studies and given courses on language teaching methodology, teacher training, materials development, measurement and evaluation, individual fifferences, language acquisition, and translation and interpreting studies. She is currently working at the Translation and Interpreting Department at Istinye University.

- Assist. Prof. Rahim Sarı

Assist. Prof. Dr. Rahim Sarı holds a PhD in language teaching from METU. He has worked as a member of the faculty and staff in various educational institutions. He has carried out comparative research studies and given lectures on language teaching methodology, curriculum and materials design, linguistics, and translation studies. He currently holds the chair in the English Translation and Interpreting Department.

- Assist. Prof. Leyla Savsar

Assist. Prof. Dr. Leyla Savsar holds a PhD in English Literature and Rhetoric from the State University of New York. She has a published a children's book titled "Dream a Little Dream". Her research interests include diaspora, memory, transnational literature, narrative medicine, postcolonial theory, and creative writing. She is also interested in the field of deaf literature and raising awareness on American Sign Language Literature.

- Res. Asst. Gamze Gürleyen

Research Assistant Gamze Gürleyen graduated from the department of English Translation and Interpreting at Dokuz Eylul University and is a graduate student at the same department and a research assistant at Istinye University. She is also a Volunteer, Freelance, and Certified Translator at the notary. She volunteered to vocalize novels for visually impaired people in opening a library at Dokuz Eylul University.

- Res. Asst. İsmail Nalbantoğlu

Research Assistant İsmail Nalbantoğlu completed his undergraduate education in 2018 and his master's degree in 2021 at Hacettepe University's Department of Social Work. During his education, he worked at the Ankara Directorate of Probation, affiliated with the Ministry of Justice, and at the Development Workshop Cooperative. Since 2019, he has been working as a research assistant at the Department of Social Work at Istinye University. He is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at the Department of Social Work at Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa. His research focuses on individuals with special needs, peer support groups, and post-traumatic growth.

HUMAK UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

Humak University of Applied Sciences is a Finnish university of applied sciences, operating through a network of campuses, that offers studies in three focus areas. These are community education, cultural management, and interpreting and linguistic accessibility. Humak is the largest provider of education in its focus areas in Finland and a renowned expert in these fields in Europe. Humak’s English degree programmes include a Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Adventure and Outdoor Education and a Master’s Degree Programme in Sign Language Interpreting. Supporting the principle of lifelong learning, Humak also offers an increasing number of courses and competence modules in English as open university of applied sciences studies. In Finnish, Humak organises bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes in all its focus areas. The open university of applied sciences studies includes a wide variety of courses and competence modules to promote lifelong learning.

Researchers from HUMAK

- Dr. Päivi Rainò

Senior Researcher, Dr. Päivi Rainò is a General Linguist (MA in Finnish philology, PhD in Finnish Sign Language) with a primary research focus on SLs, deaf studies and interpreting between visual and auditive languages. Besides lexicology, her specialities within applied linguistics are socio-demographic research on the communities of Deaf people, and users of sign language and their linguistic accessibility. Dr. Rainò has published appr. 120 academic articles and other publications, as well as multimedia productions on these.Her research areas have included e.g. Finnish as a second language of SL users; learning outcomes in the syllabus of FinSL in basic education and studies on demographics and linguistic accessibility among the deaf people in Finland and in Albania. Her recent studies have focused on linguistic rights and attitudes towards SL users and future needs in the education of SLIs in Finland.

- Outi Kuvaja

Outi Kuvaja (previously Mäkelä) graduated as SL interpreter in 1994 and received a MA degree in Education in 2001. She is specialised in interpreting for the deafblind people. At Humak, she has participated in designing the curricula for the Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Interpreting and Linguistic Accessibility; Master’s Degree Programme in the Development of Interpreting Practices; European Master in Sign Language Interpreting (EUMASLI). With L. Halkosaari (see below) she is the co-author of Recommendations for a Curriculum for Deaf Interpreters produced during the Erasmus+ project Developing Deaf Interpreting In Europe. Kuvaja has held positions of trust at the University of Tartu (Estonia), Training programme for Sign Language Interpreter being a member of the accreditation committee in 2009. At Humak UAS she has been a Member of the Board of Examination since 201

- Liisa Halkosaari

Liisa Halkosaari is an interpreter trainer with a BA in interpreting (Diaconia UAS 2002) and a MA in FinSL (University of Jyväskylä 2013). She has long-standing experience in being involved with the Finnish Association of SLIs. Lately, she has managed projects on revitalisation of Finland-Swedish SL and curriculum development for Finland-Swedish SLIs.

- Juha Manunen

Juha Manunen is a Deaf lecturer of sign language and interpreting at Humak. He received his MA degree in Education from Jyväskylä University in 2008. In his master thesis, Manunen analyzed plural negation in FinSL. He has been one of Humak’s lecturers at EUMASLI MA Programme; LIVS2 programme for interpreters in Finland-Swedish SL and as a project researcher at Humak he participated in the production of open online dictionary for FinSL (SignWiki).

- Sirpa Lyytinen

MA, Senior Lecturer in Interpreting Sirpa Lyytinen has held her post at Humak UAS since 2001. She is also specialized in interpreting for customers with multiple challenges. She is one of the authors of Humak UAS’s new curriculum designed for people with speech and language disorders.

STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY

Stockholm University (SU) is home to Sweden’s most substantial research within science and human science, as well as the home of a number of internationally prominent research environments. Research in sign language has been carried out at the Department of Linguistics since 1972. Much of the current research focuses on sign language structure, lexicography and corpora for sign language, particularly Swedish Sign Language. A related development has been the availability of systems for fine-grained, searchable annotation of videos with signing. Other research issues are language acquisition of deaf children, language assessment, language teaching, multilingualism in deaf, deaf refugees, language acquisition of hearing second language learners. There is also a BA program in sign language interpreting.

Researchers from SU

- Prof. Johanna Mesch

Prof. Johanna Mesch is a deaf professor of Sign language at the Sign Language Section of the Department of Linguistics at Stockholm University. She holds a PhD in sign language linguistics. Her PhD from 1998 was first in the world to look at deafblind communication from a strictly linguistic perspective. Her research work focuses on the sign language linguistics and the corpora in Swedish Sign Language. Her wider interests include tactile sign language and cross-linguistic comparisons of signed languages. She teaches tactile sign language, sign language linguistics, deaf history and culture, and Deaf studies. She worked with the leading sign linguists in Brasil as a visiting professor, at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Some ongoing projects are Nordic Signed Language Corpus Network and a series online workshops funded by a UCL Cities Partnerships Program with University College London.

- Ingela Holmström

Ingela Holmström, associate professor/senior lecturer, obtained her doctoral degree in Education at Örebro University 2013. She has been active at the Department of Linguistics at Stockholm University since 2014 and has worked on a number of different research projects. The project Mulder 2020-2023 is about the multilingual situation of deaf refugees in Sweden. Another project, the DHT project, is about the bilingualism of the deaf and hard-of hearing in special schools and municipal schools. She leads a project that deals with teaching Swedish Sign Language as a second language for hearing beginners.

- Magnus Ryttervik

Magnus Ryttervik is a deaf lecturer of sign language and interpreting at Stockholm University. He received a MA degree in sign language linguistics in 2016. He teaches Swedish Sign Language to students in the BA program of sign language and interpreting, sign language for beginners, and introduction to Swedish Sign Language in theory and practice for employees in special education.

- Josephine Willing

Josephine Willing is a deaf lecturer of sign language and interpreting at Stockholm University. She received a MA in sign language linguistics in 2020. Her main responsibility is teaching Swedish Sign Language to students in the BA program of sign language and interpreting, sign language for beginners, and introduction to Swedish Sign Language in theory and practice for employees in special education. She is involved in various tasks relating to sign language, such as working on sign language evaluations within a pilot project in collaboration with the National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools. She also constructs sentence levels in the Swedish Sign Language Dictionary.

ASSOCIATION OF TURKISH SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETERS

Located in Ankara, the headquarter of the association IDTD (ATSLI) was established in 2010 with a current number of 174 volunteering members. The association aims to provide solutions to problems encountered by the Sign Language Interpreters in Professional and Social life and for the development and training of professionals in the field. In order to achieve these goals, it aims to conduct joint projects with the authorities and individuals through grant support for the project to be conducted successfully. It seeks to take joint actions with the members of this profession by following a national common policy related to the profession, to eliminate the inequalities that the hard of hearing have been exposed to throughout their professional and social lives, to support their career opportunities for a better professional life by providing social activities and opportunities for research to the members of the association, to protect the rights and interests of the volunteers and help them develop their skills and knowledge, and to maintain the feasibility of the members of the profession within the scope of “Ethical Principles of the Sign Language Interpreters” as stated in the article 23 of the legislation, as well as the national development of the profession within the scope of the opportunities of the association based on the activities of international institutions such as WASLI (World Association of Sign Language Interpreters) and EFSLI (European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters).

Researchers from IDTD

       - Banu Türkuğur Şahin

Banu Turkuğur Şahin is the head of Sign Language Interpreters Association and a board member of the Confederation of the Deaf She has worked as a sign language instructor at Islamic Sciences Deaf Association, Sign Language Teacher at Ankara and Hacettepe Universitiesy, an educator in Turkish National Federation of Deaf (TIEMF), a committee member in World Federation of the Deaf Representative of Turkey in WASLI, a Turkish Sign Language Specialist of “Spread the Sign” Project at the Kınık School for Hearing Impaired, a coordinator at “Sign5” Conference by Gazi University, a sign Language teacher in “No Barriers for Participation” Project, and a Turkish Sign Language Interpreter in “Education Overcomes All Barriers” project.

- Başak Albay

Başak Albay is a sign language interpreter in the Ministry of Family and Social Services She has participated in many projects for the sign language interpreting and interpreters.

- Kadir Demir

Kadir Demir is a sign language interpreter at Anadolu University. He has participated in many deaf-related interpreters’ events in the country.

- Dilan Arık

Dilan Arık is the head of Deaf Women’s Solidarity Association. She has worked for the Emergency Call Center (112) as a Turkish Sign Language Interpreter.

- Öznur Akto

Öznur Akto is a sign language interpreter at Lokman Hekim Health Group. She has worked as a teacher at social Service and Children Protection Institution and Ministry of National Education. She has participated in a lot of educational events related to the deaf in the country.

- Can Akto

Can Akto is an occupational safety specialist. He graduated from the Department of Electrical Electronics Engineering, METU and business administration program, Anadolu University. He has worked in EU projects for the Deaf working in heavy metal works. Among his research interests is access in occupational safety. He supports the projects of Association of TSLI in terms of technic and administrative aspects.