By Ayşegül Rosa AKSOY, IFAPA Student Chair, Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey
Rosa AKSOY IFAPA student representative
IFAPA Student Chair Ayşegül Rosa AKSOY, partakes to “RISEWISE: rise women with disabilities in social engagement” project as a secondment.
The RISEWISE project focuses on the collective of women with disabilities from different perspectives, trying to identify needs and best practices in project-partner countries, for the integration and improvement the quality of life of women with disabilities in several respects. 
RISEWISE (www.risewiseproject.eu) is a project funded by Europe Union in collaboration of 6 countries (Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey) with 14 NGOs (Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe-AAATE, Bologna Onlus- AIAS, Italian Association of Multiple Sclerosis-AISM, Association of Families and Friends of People with Disabilities- AFADIS, Association of Women with Disabilities- ENG-KAD, Centre of Social Integration and Community Solidarity-FRATERNA, Funka Nu AB, ) and universities (University of Brescia, University of Minho, Complutense University of Madrid-UCM, Middle East Technical University-METU, Stockholm University, National University of Distance Education-UNED, University of Genoa) in total.
Within the scope of RISEWISE project, Aksoy contributes by offering her own pilot-implementation she called A-PETISCOS and a seminar to prepare a booklet about accessibility tips she called KitACC. Her project called “Adaptive Physical Education to Inclusive Sustainable Cooperative Society (A-PETISCOS)” aims to include the elderlies (+60 years) and children (5-6 years) into inclusive games together. Therefore, she prepared a set of Inclusive Games with adapted materials to include the both age group into the same activities in an NGO calls FRATERNA (www.fraterna.org) which offers kindergarten and day-care in the same centre, in Guimarães, Portugal. And a further implementation will be carried out in the future for further development.
A-PETISCOS in action
Farewell to Simona kitACC
The other study within the scope of RISEWISE project is she called “Kit for Accessible Communities and Cities (KitACC)” was held in Guimarães, too. Aksoy organised a seminar and a discussion panel with cooperation of a secondment from Department of Informatics, Amrco Gomes, and the authority of the “Office for Inclusion”, Carlos Barbosa, from University of Minho and three other secondments, Maria Teresa Magliocca (Frosinone), Valentina Mazzarella (Naples), and Teresa Bello (Turin), from Italian Association of Multiple Sclerosis (AISM), an NGO which is located in different cities in Italy. The seminar and the discussion panel aimed to share the experiences on inclusion and accessibility settings in universities and NGOs. In addition to that the panel aimed to come to a conclusion of KitACC manual.
The seminar started with Aksoy’s openning and continued with; Maria Teresa Magliocca (AISM, Frosinone) “Me and My city and Italian Association of Multiple Sclerosis (AISM)”; Valentina Mazzarella (AISM, Naples) “Naples, Surroundings and AISM”; Teresa Bello (AISM, Turin) “Turin, Social Cooperation and AISM”; Carlos BARBOSA (Office for Inclusion, University of Minho) “Social Model and Accessibility in University of Minho for Including all”; Marco Gomes (Department of Informatics, University of Minho) “Teaching with Perspective of considering accessibility of the courses”; invited speaker Manuela OLIVEIRA (architect) with her speech titled “Through the eyes of an architect: Designing for People”; Ayşegül Rosa Aksoy (APA Specialist, METU) “Disability Studies through Inclusion at METU”.
For detailed information you can visit www.aysegulrosa.wordpress.com .