Cafe Yanimda, which is a social responsibility project and realized in partnership with IGA and TUM, which provides food and beverage services within the airport; Adopting a 360-degree accessible service concept, IGA is starting to operate at Istanbul Airport.
The revenues of Cafe Yanımda, which employs individuals with physical and cognitive differences with the approach of 'the right to participate in life equally', are donated to non-governmental organizations working to improve their rights and freedoms in social life.
Cafe Yanimda serves as an accessible place where guests traveling on domestic routes can do their food and beverage shopping independently. Cafe Yanimda provides access to solutions for all guests' needs from a single point; With the cooperation of TUM and IGA, under the consultancy of Everything Accessible, and with the support of Arnavutköy Municipality in employment, 9 individuals with physical and cognitive differences also open up space in business life.
TUM CEO Hüseyin Dönmez spoke about the project as follows:
“IGA Istanbul Airport has pioneered many applications such as Child and Family Friendly Airport, Assistance Service, Accessible Transportation, Barrier-Free Airport, Special Passenger Service Point, Sign Language, with its human-centered business approach. All these applications opened our horizons as TUM. We are very proud of “Cafe Yanimda”, which we have implemented and launched in line with the “Airport for Everyone” approach of IGA Istanbul Airport and to contribute to the “accessible airport” mission. Cafe Yanimda, which we can also describe as a social responsibility initiative, is not a project that has emerged from yesterday to today. Our aim with this project; To show that individuals with physical and cognitive differences can actively participate in employment and socialize when accessible conditions are provided in their work and social life.”
Dönmez underlined that they do not want to remember individuals with physical and cognitive differences only on one or two special days a year; “While providing employment to them; We help them take a step towards a safer future with their economic well-being.
On the other hand; We offer all kinds of opportunities for individuals with physical and cognitive differences to spend time in our cafe to make them comfortable. For example; We adjusted all the lighting in the cafe area according to eye sensitivity. We have Braille directions and menus for our visually impaired guests and employees. We also have a charging station for power wheelchairs. We have placed a quiet room so that our guests who are sensitive to sound can enjoy their meals more comfortably, and we have a live assistant service that communicates in sign language. In summary; We have designed a place where our guests can easily communicate with friendly employees from different disability groups, order and access solutions tailored to their needs at a single point.”
All proceeds of Cafe Yanımda will be donated to non-governmental organizations working to improve the rights and freedoms of these individuals in social life.
Kadri Samsunlu, CEO of IGA Istanbul Airport, said, “As IGA Istanbul Airport, we aim to make our airport more accessible to our guests with physical, sensory and mental differences, by adhering to national and international standards since the construction phase, and to offer them a pleasant airport experience that they can experience alone. we set off. As a result of our work, we were entitled to receive the Istanbul Airport Accessibility Certificate in 2020, following the inspections carried out by the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services in accordance with national/international accessibility standards. Recently, Airports Council International (ACI) stated that we became the first airport in the world to be accredited within the scope of the “Accreditation for Improvement of Accessibility” program of IGA Istanbul Airport for airport accessibility.”
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