Removing Barriers

The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the concept of disability under three main categories: impairment, disability, and handicap. The United Nations describes the concept of disability as “Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”

Public decisions and practices directly or indirectly related to persons with disabilities can be found in the past, and in Turkey social policies for employing and protecting persons with disabilities started to be implemented mostly after the 1960s.

Yapı Kredi attaches great importance to the contributions of disabled people to business life and provides them with equal opportunities in the recruitment process. Yapı Kredi incorporates the matters of fair labor, improvement of working standards, and inclusion in its policies, in consideration of their effects on the supply and value chain, to prevent discrimination.

Yapı Kredi is successful in continuing its Enabled Program that started in 2008 - a first in the sector - to increase the access of all sections of society to finance and to offer products suitable for their needs through its financial solutions.

Yapı Kredi’s ATMs without barriers, designed specifically for its customers with physical and visual disabilities, are in operation throughout Turkey. The Bank offers an online chat application for individuals with hearing disabilities. At ATMs, which are available to all customers, disabled customers can complete their transactions without any transaction fees, and they are given priority when they call the Customer Call Center. Click here for the website containing detailed information on the Bank's Enabled Program.

Yapı Kredi reinforces the Enabled Banking Program with various projects, in addition to the advantages offered to disabled employees and customers. As part of the “I Know No Barriers for My Country” project, the Bank has so far transferred more than 600 books into the digital environment as audiobooks via collaboration between Yapı Kredi Publications (YKY) and the Assistive Technology and Education Laboratory for Individuals with Visual Disabilities (GETEM).