Biennial AccessAbility, “Disability – Accessibility – Inclusion” took place in the scope of the 3rd Çanakkale Biennial and started as an initiative of individuals gathered around the question of how we provide access to contemporary art events and interactions of people with disabilities. When accessibility is concerned, at first exhibition spaces have been arranged so as to provide access for the disabled, wheelchair ramps, guidance and marking were implemented. In order to diversified communication channels, all the texts in the exhibition space have written in Braille alphabet. In addition to these applications, private guided tours are organized since 2012. These studies were carried out in cooperation with Istanbul University Disability Research and Application Center.
Another objective of the importance of this program since the beginning, in addition to providing individuals with disabilities with access to contemporary art, was to raise awareness among the public about the fact of disability. At the end of the manuscript written by Disability – Accessibility – Inclusion Biennial Team on the occasion of 3rd Biennial, these objectives described as follow: “The revealing of amazement and special awareness among the people around us was something more important than getting rid of all the physical obstacles relating to the disabled people. According to us, to able to create this awareness was the largest acquisition of the Biennial. Unfortunately, many people have very little awareness about disability; our biggest achievement was the awareness to be acquired through such art events and the courtesy of that awareness has occurred as a part of an art event. The captions written in Braille alphabet were not on the walls just for the visually impaired people’s touch. The awareness even the tiny paper creates was worth seeing. Doing something for disabled people in such a large-scale international art event under the heading of “Biennial Disability-Accessibility-Inclusion” and volunteer work of so many people come together under this title was an indication that something has changed. We hope that this local “unimpeded” movement which was born in Canakkale, will continue and spread all over the country.
