The Blind in History and Society: Wisdom vs. Despair

Mehmet Emin Demirci was born in Kurucuova, a small rural village in central Turkey, in the province of Konya. Born with childhood glaucoma, his vision deteriorated during his early years in primary school. His family initially enrolled him in the GAP School for the visually handicapped, far from his home and close to the Syrian border in southeastern Turkey. He returned to his village to complete his high school education in a regular school in the small city of Beyşehir where he went on to graduate with honors. After mastering English, he competed to enter one of Turkey’s top schools, Bosphorus University and went on to receive an undergraduate degree in Sociology, followed by an MA in Adult Education at the same school. The topic of his Masters Thesis explored Adult Education services at the associations of the physically-handicapped in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir. Demirci later pursued further studies in Special Education and Rehabilitation in universities in Berlin, Germany. Over the years, he has worked with national and international organizations of and for the blind and has traveled extensively, attending many conferences dealing with blind issues. Demirci has had many articles about blindness published in Turkish, English and German.