10.6.9. Disability access scheme

In 2025, METU ran access schemes that give students with disabilities mentoring and other targeted support.

Mentoring

Every academic department has a designated disability adviser who mentors students with disabilities and liaises between them, their instructors and the Disability Support Office. Students can also be matched with trained student course partners who study alongside them.

The scheme is formalised in the METU Disability Support Office Directive (revised 9 August 2022): academic adaptations, course substitutions and equivalent courses are decided for each student after consulting their disability adviser and instructor (Article 14), and each faculty, graduate school and school appoints an office coordinator for three years to link it with the office (Article 9).

Other targeted support

In 2025, the METU Disability Support Office actively supported 30 students in the spring semester and 32 in the fall semester, employed 17 part-time student assistants with a budget of 720,000 TL, and prepared 247 academic accommodation letters (METU Institutional Self-Evaluation Report 2025).

https://kalite.metu.edu.tr/sites/kalite.metu.edu.tr/files/kidr2025.pdf

In 2025, students with reduced mobility were supported by a specially equipped vehicle on a weekly route plan, and visually impaired students received course materials in accessible formats.

Under the Directive, the office also helps students with financial difficulties obtain free assistive devices (Article 5(h)), prepares information on job opportunities after graduation for students with disabilities (Article 5(k)), and runs awareness seminars and events for staff and students (Article 5(f) and (i)).