10.6.10. Disability accommodation policy

METU’s Senate-approved Disability Support Office Directive sets out how students with disabilities receive reasonable accommodations and assigns staff and a budget process to deliver them. In 2025 the Disability Support Office implemented the directive with a dedicated budget and student assistants.

Policy: the Disability Support Office Directive

The METU Disability Support Office Directive (Engelsiz ODTÜ Birimi Yönergesi), approved by the METU Senate and in its current version since 9 August 2022, sets out how students with disabilities receive reasonable accommodations. It is based on Article 15 of the Law on Persons with Disabilities No. 5378, Articles 11 and 12 of the Higher Education Institutions Disability Counselling and Coordination Regulation (2014) and the Regulation on Exam Practices for Persons with Disabilities (2022). Under Article 5, the office works to ensure that students with disabilities have equal access to the university’s opportunities and services and identifies their academic, administrative, physical, psychological, social, and housing needs throughout their studies.

Eligibility and decision: Accommodations are based on proven need. For exam accommodations, students submit a valid disability health report (the adult disability health board report, or the special needs report for those under 18) to their faculty, graduate school, or school at the start of each semester. The METU Senate then decides the measures every semester on the office’s recommendation (Article 13(1)). For other services, students apply to the office with a valid health report, and the office provides services suited to their health and needs (Article 13(2)).

Exam accommodations: Depending on the type and degree of disability, students receive reader, marker, or scribe support, large-print question booklets, extra time, and a separate exam room (Article 13(1)). The office sets the time, venue, materials, and reader support each student needs (Article 5(e)).

Course and campus accommodations: Course adaptations, part-time student assistants, transport and the Accessible Resources Office (Article 13(2)), and the course materials, tools and equipment students need (Article 5(d)).

Adaptation before exemption: When a student cannot take a course because of their disability, the office proposes academic adaptations after consulting the student’s disability adviser and the instructor. Only if the course still cannot be made accessible is the student offered a course substitution or another course with the same credits, instead of an exemption (Article 14).

Staff and funding provisions: The Rectorate provides the special education specialist, psychologist, psychological counsellor and other academic and administrative staff the office needs (Article 12). The office prepares an annual work programme and budget for approval and reports to the Rectorate every year (Articles 5(m), 8 and 11), and works to provide free assistive devices to students with financial difficulties (Article 5(h)).

Governance: The office reports to a Vice-Rector or Rector’s Adviser, every faculty, graduate school and school appoints an office coordinator for three years, and the management board includes a student with a disability (Articles 6 to 10).

Implementation in 2025

In practice, the office agrees accommodations with each student individually in a Letter for Academic Accommodation, based on an interview that considers both the student’s disability and their personal needs. In 2025 it prepared 247 such letters, supported 30 students in the spring semester and 32 in the fall semester, and employed 17 part-time student assistants with a budget of 720,000 TL.

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

Scope

The Directive covers students. Under its Article 2, principles for staff and visitors with disabilities are set separately.