Services Provided for Students with Disabilities

At a glance: support services for students with disabilities

Özyeğin University provides support services for people with disabilities through its Disabled Students Unit, including personal assistants, classroom and exam accommodations, accessible course materials, assistive technology and psychological support. All services are free of charge to students and funded by the University.

Personal assistants: Students with disabilities who request support are assigned trained part-time student assistants, employed and paid by the University, who act as personal assistants (organising lecture notes, studying together, access to otherwise inaccessible resources; up to 15 hours a week and 60 hours a month per student).
Sign language and captioning: Captioning is provided for lecture videos for students with hearing impairments, and sign language training is offered to administrative staff and students.
Classroom and exam accommodations: extra time of more than 15% and up to 30% depending on the medical report and the exam, separate exam room, reader/marker, enlarged (A3) exam papers, computer-based exams, adapted listening and speaking components.
Accessible materials and assistive technology: textbooks and course materials scanned for use with screen readers, image descriptions, computers, headphones and voice recorders.
Psychological support and workshops: one-to-one sessions with the Unit's specialist; art therapy and drama workshops.
Peer mentoring: Students with disabilities can benefit from peer support in collaboration with the Office for Learning and Teaching Enhancement (OLTE). Details: Peer Mentoring and Targeted Support.

In 2025: the Disabled Students Unit directly supported 11 students with disabilities; part-time student assistants provided 215 hours of personal assistant support; 9 course materials were converted into accessible formats; and 1 disability awareness and accessibility event was held: during the World Day of Persons with Disabilities Awareness Week (1–5 December 2025), organised with the Duyarlı ÖzÜ volunteering programme, the University ran an awareness stand, a Braille writing workshop, a workshop on communicating with people with disabilities and basic sign language, a talk on disability rights and workplace accessibility, and a special Radio ÖzÜ broadcast.

Core services

Informing Faculty Members: At the beginning of each semester, with the knowledge and consent of students with disabilities, an information e-mail is sent to the instructors of their courses describing the student's situation and needs. Course and exam settings are then selected or arranged according to the disability.
Personal Assistant (Part-time Student Assistant) Support: Students with disabilities who request support are assigned part-time student assistants, employed and paid by the University, who work as personal assistants. Assistants help organise lecture notes, study together with the student and provide access to resources that are not otherwise accessible, for up to 15 hours a week (60 hours a month) per student. The aim is to support equal participation and independent living skills. The Disabled Students Unit meets regularly with both the students receiving and providing support and adjusts the support to each student's needs.
Individual Meetings: The Disabled Students Unit specialist provides psychological support to students with disabilities.
Group Workshops: Art therapy and drama workshops are held for students with and without disabilities.

Note: To receive the first two services above, students submit one of the following: a Medical Board Report, a Disability Medical Board Report (ESKR – Engelli Sağlık Kurulu Raporu), a Special Needs Report for Children (ÇÖZGER – Çocuklar İçin Özel Gereksinim Raporu), or a medical status report signed by three physicians. For individual meetings, a medical status report signed by one physician is sufficient.

Support by disability group

1. Physical Disability

Making arrangements in classes and examinations according to the student's disability and particular needs,
Submitting proposals to faculties and faculty members to make the necessary arrangements in line with the relevant decision of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK),
Making class and exam environments physically accessible depending on the nature of the student's disability,
Providing support and time flexibility in the writing sections of exams so that students can write on their own computers,
Allowing the student to take the exam in a separate room with a scribe depending on the nature of the disability.

Physical accessibility arrangements made by the Operations Department under the guidance of the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Unit (details: Accessible Campus):

Arrangement of building and construction sites,
Providing step-free access to campus buildings via ramps, elevators and, where needed, platform lifts,
Offering easy access from one point to another on campus,
Making on-campus restrooms accessible,
Relocating courses and other activities held in inaccessible buildings,
Publishing a barrier-free access map (2025) showing accessible outdoor and indoor routes and accessible parking,
Ramps along pavements providing continuous access throughout the campus,
Offering accessible parking spaces (use is approved by the Health Center and shared with the Security Center),
Providing priority in dormitory room allocation,
Allocating rooms for students with physical disabilities on the ground floors of dormitories that have ramps at the building entrances,
Bathrooms in these rooms built in accordance with the applicable regulations,
A wheelchair-accessible library.

2. Visual Impairment

Making textbooks and course materials accessible online for use with screen readers,
Making arrangements in classes and examinations according to the student's disability and needs, and submitting proposals to the student's Faculty/School/Graduate School, academic advisors and course instructors; where confidentiality is required, the student's information is shared only with their approval or at their request,
Description of images,
Administering examinations one-on-one with a reader/scribe in a separate room,
Printing examinations in large print on A3 paper for students with low vision,
Offering extra time,
Providing computers and headphones when necessary, and material support such as voice recorders provided by the School of Languages for use in class,
Informing IT of the Unit's hardware needs (computers, microphones, etc.) before budget planning, including who made each request, when, for what and in what quantity,
Offering information technology literacy training to students who need it,
Visiting relevant institutions to develop the student's independent living skills and introduce ongoing accessibility work for people with visual impairments,
Describing the logos of university clubs, some artworks and some images of the campus for people with visual impairments as part of Community Engagement Projects,
Providing a Bluetooth beacon-based audio navigation system for people with visual impairments in the Student Center, AB1, AB2, AB3, AB4, the Sports Center, ScOLa, ÖzÜ-X and outdoor areas (seamless routing between all buildings except AB1 since 2024; accessed via the Turkcell Hayal Ortağım and Blindoors apps on iOS and Android),
Making certain adjustments in the dormitories,
Of the 56 elevators on campus, 48 have Braille buttons and 32 have audible floor announcements (23 have announcements, Braille buttons and handrails, including all 8 in Dorm 6); Braille signage and audible guidance are also provided at wayfinding points,
Offering accessible services in the Library for people with disabilities,
Offering accessible resources that can be borrowed from the library collection, including audiobooks and DVDs with subtitles,
Offering access to audio versions of databases and some e-resources, in addition to their other accessible features,
Offering group study rooms with LCD screens by appointment.

3. Hearing Impairment

Making arrangements in classes and examinations according to the student's disability and needs, and submitting proposals to the student's Faculty/School/Graduate School, academic advisors and course instructors; where confidentiality is required, the student's information is shared only with their approval or at their request,
In line with the letter of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) dated 3 January 2022 (No. E.057980) on foreign language course exemption for students with disabilities, informing faculties that students with hearing impairments enrolled in Turkish-medium programmes (Law and Architecture) may take Turkish courses of equivalent credit instead of ENG 103 English I and ENG 104 English II,
Subtitles for lecture videos provided by course instructors,
Recommending that course instructors face students when teaching,
Allowing students to listen to the listening material on their own computers using their own headphones in a separate room in the presence of an invigilator during the listening exams of the English Preparatory Program,
Recommending that the listening material is read aloud by an invigilator in a separate room for students who can lip-read,
Recommending that students with profound hearing loss are exempted from the listening sections of English Preparatory Program exams,
Making certain adjustments in the dormitories,
Providing sign language training to 5 supervisory and administrative staff members for students with hearing impairments,
Visual fire alarms,
Supporting relevant projects of the Community Engagement Projects Unit,
Offering "Introduction to Sign Language" training to administrative staff and students to raise awareness of sign language,
Conducting the "Language of Fingers" project as part of Community Engagement Projects to raise awareness of sign language.

4. Speech and Language Disorders

Making arrangements in classes and examinations according to the student's disability and needs, and submitting proposals to the student's Faculty/School/Graduate School, academic advisors and course instructors; where confidentiality is required, the student's information is shared only with their approval or at their request,
Recommending exemption from the speaking section of English Preparatory Program exams, or adapted assessment criteria.

5. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Making arrangements in classes and examinations according to the student's disability and needs, and submitting proposals to the student's Faculty/School/Graduate School, academic advisors and course instructors; where confidentiality is required, the student's information is shared only with their approval or at their request,
Sharing course notes with the student,
Allowing audio recording,
Offering extra time.

6. Learning Disabilities

Making arrangements in classes and examinations according to the student's disability and needs, and submitting proposals to the student's Faculty/School/Graduate School, academic advisors and course instructors; where confidentiality is required, the student's information is shared only with their approval or at their request,
Preparing all course materials and exams in 11- or 12-point Calibri,
Sharing course notes with the student,
Allowing audio recording,
Offering extra time.

7. Chronic Conditions

Making arrangements in classes and examinations according to the student's disability and needs, and submitting proposals to the student's Faculty/School/Graduate School, academic advisors and course instructors; where confidentiality is required, the student's information is shared only with their approval or at their request,
Making the necessary arrangements in the dormitories according to the student's health condition.

8. Psychological and Emotional Conditions

Referring the student to the Psychological Development Unit,
Determining the student's needs together with a mental health professional,
Ensuring that the student receives the necessary support from their Faculty and from course instructors/exam invigilators,
Ensuring that the Faculty and course instructors/exam invigilators respect the student's confidentiality and ethical limits and do not insist on more information than the student has disclosed,
Holding monthly one-to-one meetings with the student for needs arising during treatment, such as side effects, and keeping a record of each meeting.

9. Temporary Disability

Contacting the relevant administrative units or faculties for the materials and arrangements the student may need during the period of temporary disability.

10. Other

This category covers students with a medical report whose condition falls outside the groups above.

Learning the details of the student's condition and obtaining information and recommendations from the Health Center to identify the arrangements the student may need on campus,
Making the necessary arrangements in the dormitories according to the student's health condition,
Sharing the identified arrangements with the relevant units and faculties.

Contact: Disabled Students Unit, specialneeds@ozyegin.edu.tr, +90 216 564 93 62, Student Center, Floor -2, 2B18B

Last updated: November 2026