Survival Guide - Discover Turkey: Experience the Best of Turkey - page 760

Travellers with Disabilities
Turkey is a challenging destination for disabled ( engelli or özürlü ) travellers. Ramps,
wide doorways and properly equipped toilets are rare, as are Braille and audio information
at sights. Crossing most streets is particularly challenging, as everyone does so at their per-
il.
Airlines and the top hotels and resorts have some provision for wheelchair access, and
ramps are beginning to appear elsewhere. Dropped kerb edges are being introduced to cit-
ies, especially in western Turkey - in places such as Edirne, Bursa and İzmir they seem to
have been sensibly designed. Selçuk, Bodrum and Fethiye have been identified as relat-
ively user-friendly towns for people with mobility problems because their pavements and
roads are fairly level. In İstanbul, the tram and the metro are the most wheelchair-access-
ible forms of public transport.
Turkish Airlines offers 25% discounts on domestic flights to travellers with minimum
40% disability and their companions. Some Turkish trains have disabled-accessible lifts,
toilets and other facilities.
ORGANISATIONS
Businesses and resources serving travellers with disabilities include the following:
Access-Able ( www.access-able.com ) Includes disabled travellers' reports and a small list of
tour and transport operators in Turkey.
Apparleyzed ( www.apparelyzed.com ) Features a report on facilities in İstanbul under 'Access-
ible Holidays'.
Hotel Rolli ( www.hotel-rolli.de ) Specially designed for wheelchair users.
Mephisto Voyage ( www.mephistovoyage.com ) Special tours for mobility-impaired people, util-
ising the Joëlette wheelchair system.