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I, Selim Altınok, and my brother, Kerim Altınok, we have been visually impaired since early years of childhood.

Our visual impairment became worse during the secondary school years, to the level that may impede the continuation of our education when we had the high school completed. Even if we succeeded in the exam and entered the university, how could we go to the faculty as we were not able to go outside alone? Every day, our father would have to take us from home to the university, which would at least be at a one-hour distance, and come back and take us from the university in the evenings, an option that did not seem quite feasible.

The education life aside, we could not have hopeful dreams about our future. How were we going to live depending on others’ help all the time? Could we get a job with this situation? How were we to meet our needs both inside and outside the house?

All these questions concerned us all the time. Particularly when the night came and we went to bed, we would talk about these concerns as two brothers for hours. We would think what we would do and what we would become, we could not find an answer. We had to do something for sure, but what was that?

It was probably when we finished the high school. One morning, our father called us after breakfast and started to read a story from the newspaper. The story said that there is a rehabilitation center in İstanbul Reşit Paşa and that the visually impaired individuals would prepare for life through getting education. Our father turned to us and said, “This is exactly the place you need.” A moment of silence followed. Our mother, as usual, felt sad, with her rather emotional attitude. Particularly, when she heard that it was a boarding school, this sadness turned into concern. How could her sons, who have lived together with her for their lives, live alone far from her for five and a half months? They were blind, they had to have someone to help them all time. What would they eat and do alone?

However, when serious decisions regarding a person’s life are in question, emotionality should be ruled out. Reason should be prioritized. So, that’s what we did, we made the decision right away with our father. We enrolled to this center in a very short while despite the whining of our mother. Then, they called us and in a beautiful summer day of the year 1981, on August 28, we went to the Altınokta Rehabilitation Center for the Blinds in Emirgan, Reşitpaşa, to become a course participant and get education.

I cannot possibly forget that day. We were welcomed by our blind friends and an official there. Our father dropped us there and left after the official said, “My brother, do not ever worry about them.” All of a sudden we were left alone among strangers, outside the usual family environment, for the first time in our lives. What would happen next? That was the moment when the education already started. The first thing we learned was that blindness was a problem or disability that was not specific to us, but the others had as well. The disability to see was a condition that was regarded pretty normal there. There were even jokes told about blindness. Visual impairment was not something to be ashamed of and not talked about there.

As time went by, we got so close with our teachers and friends, I can say that we did have the same good memories that a person serving his military service would have as a result of the solid friendships built there.

Regarding what we learned there...

First of all, we started to accept our visual impairment at the center. This acceptance was probably the most important and the first step of all. That cannot be done through word alone, of course. It happens through living through it, watching your friends and education. This is a process, which was always assisted by the blind psychologist at the center, who was ready to talk to us and support us all the time.

Among the first things that we learned at the center was the Braille alphabet. Our instructor Ahmet Kiraz was a very sweet person. He used to tell jokes about the course subject. Thanks to the Braille alphabet, we could take notes at the university and improve our foreign language skills through the books that we ordered from England. English language opened the doors to Braille libraries in England and the United States.

I remember Ms. Münevver who taught us to type. She was a very lovable person. After learning how to type, we had the chance to do our exams in the university through writing by ourselves. We saved ourselves from the concern that it would be a bad day for the clerk there and from the worry how he would transfer the things we said to the exam paper. Typing skills also enabled us to write letters to our friends that could see and to prepare our petitions by ourselves while practicing attorneyship, which was our profession afterwards. I should also add that we wrote and submitted our Master’s and doctorate dissertations thnaks to our typing skills. Later, typewriter was replaced by computer. Currently, a blind teacher teaches the students how to use a computer at the center.

One of the indispensable things that rehabilitation taught us was teh ability to independent movement. Before we got that education, we were people that could not go out alone and that could walk only with the help of a friend or relative. However, Mr Hamdi used to give us white walking sticks inside and outside the building and say, “Go to the classroom.” After learning the stick usage techniques properly, we started to go to the tea houses around the center alone. Mr. Hamdi were following us while we walked. When we got back to the center, he would talk to us about the errors we made and made some warnings to us.

We still remember how me and my brother went to our house in Bakırköy, through taking a bus from Emirgan and through Eminönü, alone, for the first time, after a couple of months of education. We felt like we had some kind of victory. Our family were both surprised and happy to see us at the door. This was a true victory for us. After that, we did not feel the need to be assisted by anyone to go somewhere. How happy was it to go wherever you like on your own with your walking stick. How happy was it to read an article in English or Turkish from a book written in Braille alphabet.

We owe thanks to Ms. Perihan for improving our hand skills through teaching us macrome knitting and making some assemblage works in the workshop. In the course entitled personal management, Mr. Muhterem taught up many house chores such as making tea, ironing shirts and even washing clothes. Mr. Ramazan was both the school principal and the abacus teacher. He would always give us advices regarding life between the courses. Mr. Hasan Keskin became the school principal then.

We did not forget Mr. Necip either, who was the always smiling cook and was famous particularly with his delicious rice. Is it possible to forget the books read by Nurse Ayfer, the music cassettes we listened to and the chats in the study room in the evenings? With the small parties we organized at the center among friends, we used to take a break from the courses and most of us had the first experiences of speaking in public, singing or reading poems. We even had probably the first dances in our lives in such parties. We were the participants of the twentieth course period. I can list the name of our friends there, despite the twenty years that passed by until then. We still have friends that we meet regularly.

Currently it must be like the sixtieth course period at the center. The majority of the administrators or the teachers must have either retired or transferred to other places. But we did not forget them even a little bit. We will always remember them with gratitude. I think the school principal is Mr. İbrahim Çiftçi at the center. We met him as well. Taner Tula teaches Braille alphabet, Sadet Tetik teaches computer and Ahmet Ünüvar teaches independent movement courses. There are also other valuable teachers.

There have been a lot of changes since that day. But I believe one thing that did not change is the warm environment of the center and the new world it opens for the blind course participants. Indeed, if we have been able to create meaningful and happy lives for ourselves as lawyers and people that are working regarding disabled individuals, the contribution of the rehabilitation education we got in this is enormous. We are able to regard the future without fear and if we can believe that we can sustain our lives even if we are left alone, the share of the self-esteem we gained and the education we got at the center is, I believe, one-hundred percent.

The blind people that are in need must get this training. The rehabilitation education has been a turning point that has changed our lives for us.

I want to address the visually impaired individuals. Come and realize a true revolution for yourself. Get rehabilitation education. Let your life change. Enjoy being independent and living without the help of others.