Diyarbakır’s Accessible Vehicle Decision: A Good Start, but Not Enough

Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipal Council unanimously approved purchasing accessible vehicles to help cancer patients and people with physical disabilities reach hospitals. Setting political differences aside to agree on such an issue deserves appreciation. These vehicles will genuinely make life easier for a cancer patient attending hospital several times a week or a person using a wheelchair.

Reading the decision, I wondered: why is accessibility still treated as a special service instead of a standard applying across the entire city?

Going to hospital, reaching school or work, meeting a friend, visiting the market… These are basic needs for disabled people just as they are for everyone. Someone dependent on family, neighbors, or an expensive taxi whenever they go out has their right to independent living restricted in practice.

Social taxi and patient transport services fill an important gap. But the long-term goal should be an accessible public transport network usable every day, at every hour, rather than special services carrying people only on particular days.

Every link in the chain

A bus may have a ramp. Is the sidewalk leading to its stop suitable? Does the ramp actually work, or has it been broken for months? Does the driver know how to deploy it and assist a wheelchair user? Can stop announcements be heard and screen information read? If even one link is missing, the service is accessible on paper but unusable in real life.

Sidewalks are a separate problem. A parked car, an overflowing stall, or an excavation left open for weeks is a minor detour for many of us. For a wheelchair user, someone walking with a cane, or a parent pushing a stroller, it can mean the road is completely blocked. Municipal enforcement needs to be firmer, and residents more considerate.

A bus with a ramp, a level unobstructed sidewalk, and a clear, legible sign serve more than disabled people. Older adults, pregnant women, families with small children, someone with a leg in a cast, and a passenger carrying a suitcase also benefit. Turkish Statistical Institute data put the population aged sixty-five and over above 9.5 million—more than one tenth of the population. An accessible city is therefore an investment in everyone’s future.

Disabled residents should be involved from the start

The views of disabled people and their representative associations should not be collected through a courtesy visit after projects are complete. They should be at the table from the first day of planning. They know best who struggles on which route.

The municipality should also share service data regularly: how many people use it, how quickly requests receive responses, which neighborhoods are harder to reach, and how many vehicles are out of service. Open information makes shortcomings visible and speeds up solutions.

Perhaps municipal managers should spend a day trying a short wheelchair journey through their own city—for example, from Dağkapı to Ofis. Every obstacle they encounter would reveal a reality missing from the reports.