Last year, The Turkish Presidential Symphony Orchestra’s New Building Opened its doors to accommodate unique cultural events in Ankara. As a concert lover, I visited the building. However, I saw that this brand new building has a number of problems with accessibility.

As a graduate student studying Universal Design and a disability ally, I tried to contact the authorities to discuss this issue. These efforts changed into protesting CSO through social media.

There are some following conservations that happened between me and CSO, I’d like to share them in my Blog and hopefully raise awareness.

This is the tweet flood started my relationship with CSO:

You may have heard that many important artists such as London Philharmonic Orchestra, @kayikcibusra_, and Mark Eliyahu give concerts at @csoadaankara. Congratulations to both @CSO1826 management and @TCKulturTurizm…

It is a project that attracts a lot of attention in Ankara, both in terms of architecture and the events they organize. I could have found the design and Cultural activities of the CSO very successful if I had been able to go with my sister, who uses a wheelchair.

Unfortunately, these events display a discriminatory attitude due to the website where the tickets are sold (@biletinial) and the design of the halls where the events take place, and only a few people are aware of this.

I want to talk about some of my CSO experiences to increase this awareness. We tried to listen to concerts of @kayikcibusra_ and Avishai Cohen, who also had a concert at that time, with my sister, who is also a music lover and plays the piano.

When we enter the @biletinial website, we see the ‘Disabled Seats’ category. However, there are no seats in this category. This is a situation that people with disabilities are pretty used to. You can’t find a seat, and you create your own solution.

We thought we could buy the seats on the door level, but there is no such information on the site. As I said, we are used to the situation; since this information is not on the site, I wanted to contact the CSO by sending an e-mail.

We could not get a response to our e-mail, probably because they did not have the information, either. (I must say that when I spoke to the CSO staff yesterday about this situation, they politely apologized.)

I talked to my sister about the situation. My sister did not want to be unable to sit in the hall when she entered, or to feel the attention of the whole hall, gave up the concert. Of course, she was distraught, but as I said, she got used to it, and we all got used to it….

I went to the CSO, hoping to go to the hall and check the door alignment, meet the staff face-to-face and not have this problem in future concerts. The relevant staff took care of our situation, apologized, and I was greeted politely.

They told me that they saw the problem of not having barrier-free seats; they said that there were empty spaces next to the seats in two categories where they could accommodate wheelchair guests there.

I am pleased that someone is aware of this problem, but other questions come to mind. Will tickets be purchased for these spaces that are not available as seats on the site? Of course, it should be bought, but we can’t reach this seat, that doesn’t exist, from the site?

So, let’s say the ticket is bought, will the huge CSO only be able to host two disabled listeners simultaneously? Or won’t these seats without seats, which are not in the 1st category, violate the right to listen to the concert in the category they wish to by paying for it?

Yesterday at the CSO, I spoke to other staff members. My goal is to raise awareness; thanks again, they were very kind. However, I learned that in this building, where the elevator also malfunctions, the disabled individual needs to know the hall door level and also the level he must enter from the parking lot.

So we never reach Category 1. We cannot access this information on the website either.

I have to say the funniest thing when you enter the CSO parking lot, you see the ‘handicapped parking spaces’ complying the legislation. You can come to the parking lot, but the CSO can’t offer you concerts.

What I mean is that although a solution is tried to be produced with the interest of the staff, unfortunately, this is a solution that causes more problems that we can only laugh at. Because the situation should have attracted the attention of other authorities long ago:

I don’t know, for example, shouldn’t the architects, whose rights we supported and defended in the invitation crisis last year, have to consider the rights of all users?
@uygurarchitects

According to the Law on the Disabled No. 5378, “Accessibility is essential for disabled people to live independently and participate fully and effectively in society.” Well, let’s say the Law is dated 2005, the building design is older, and it has not been revised.

Again in the same law text, “necessary procedures are carried out by the Ministry of National Education @tcmeb and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism @TCKulturTurizm to meet all kinds of educational, social, and cultural needs of the disabled.”.

I have to ask here, a year ago, the Presidency (@tcbestepe @iletisim) and many names from the Ministry of Culture attended the opening ceremony of the CSO building; how can the CSO work against the Law?

Wouldn’t a person think of where are the people with disabilities going after the parking lot? A single person. Apparently not.

As I said before, the lack of accessibility of architectural structures in Turkey is a subject that needs to be discussed a lot, and CSO is just one example of this. However, it’s almost 2022, and we can’t discuss this in public buildings that we are proud of (!)

I blame everyone involved. Even though I try to participate in cultural events regularly, until this problem is solved, I will keep boycotting the CSO because it violates human rights, which I believe and defend and which are protected by Law. I will not get used to this situation.

We always discuss this issue, focusing on the audience using a wheelchair, but can the visually impaired and the elderly use the website and CSO independently? No. Or is an artist with a disability able to perform at the CSO? I do not think so.

A group of people without disabilities welcome each other, ignoring the Law. What a beautiful world.

https://twitter.com/HaticeTugba