“Brighten the darkness” project from students of Public Relations and Advertising department

Before the seminar, students organized an event called “ Trip into darkness” in A block of rectorate building. After putting a black band on the participants eyes, students  asked them to find the way with the help of white walking stick.  After this experiment, an interview with the participants was conducted and the video recordings were shown during the seminar. During the events participants realized how it feels to walk outdoors without seeing anything.  Some of the participants said that they had tried to find the way by smells and sounds, the others claimed that although they knew the school well they got lost and felt stressed.

Special Education Teacher Oğuzhan Gürel, Vice- directors of Gozder Assoociation Oğuz Taşdemir and Nur Sefa Özkan joined the seminar as speakers. They talked about visually impaired people and problems they face, the society’s expectations from these people, the terms of empathy and sympathy, the activities of Gozder Association and the ways to become its member. Apart from this,  Oğuz Taşdemir explained some cases from his experience to show how offending sometimes people can be without realising it. Once he heard somebody saying “ What are you doing in the street, it is better for you to stay at home” to a blind person trying to cross the street. Sometimes when blind people ask for help, others just pull their clothes to help to cross the street.

As a part of the project 75 students were questioned ragarding the topic and the results of this survey were presented during the seminar. The survey was conducted by by the students of Public Relations and Advertising depatment Damla Kaya , Emre Can Uçar , Dönay Şenel, Damla Bingöl and  Esra Şahin with the support of Head  of the School of Applied Sciences, Public Relations and Advertising Department Emel Tozlu Öztay and Head of Vocational School of Higher Education, Department of Marketing and Advertising  Fulya Beteş. According to the results of the survey people are not aware of the problems and difficulties that visually impaired people face.

The speakers thanked  students and faculty member of  Istanbul Gelisim University the School of Applied Sciences, Public Relations and Advertising Department Nevra Üçler. At the end of the event Üçler presented plaques to Special Education Teacher Oğuzhan Gürel, Vice- directors of Gozder Assoociation Oğuz Taşdemir and Nur Sefa Özkan.