Fair Tales Expands Reach to Benefit More Children​

Odeabank’s Fair Tales project, dedicated to promoting gender equality, has taken on greater significance through its collaboration with the Accessible Everything Association. As part of the initiative, Fair Tales is also reaching children with visual and hearing impairments.

Thanks to the partnership between Accessible Everything and Türkiye’s young, dynamic, and innovative bank Odeabank, driven by the principle that “every child should be able to listen to fairy tales,” the Fair Tales project now reaches children with visual and hearing impairments through audio descriptions and sign language. Through audio descriptions, children with visual impairments can more vividly perceive the characters and settings in fairy tales. Meanwhile, children with hearing impairment can enjoy the tales with the addition of sign language translations to subtitles.

The Fair Tales project, a collaboration between Odeabank and Can Publishing, provides egalitarian retellings of the most beloved and timeless tales. The classic tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Kindhearted Prince, and The Frog Prince were reinterpreted by modern Turkish authors Gamze Arslan, Mevsim Yenice, Murat Gülsoy, Fadime Uslu, and Hikmet Hükmenoğlu, with guidance from psychology professor Ayşe Bilge Selçuk, Ph.D.

Odeabank CEO Mert Öncü stated, “At Odeabank, we believe the concept of equality should be embedded from a young age.’ In a world where kindhearted women are depicted as waiting at home for Prince Charming and strong men are cast as their saviors, there is little room for women to fully realize their potential. We believe it's time for a change in perspective. Accordingly, Fair Tales stands for example a key initiative for gender equality, a priority that Odeabank deeply cares about. We believe that the concept of equality should be nurtured from a young age. Therefore, we aim to raise awareness among parents and help shift societal perceptions. We are now taking another significant step forward in our project. Thanks to our collaboration with Accessible Everything, the Fair Tales project now reaches children with visual and hearing impairments through audio descriptions and sign language. We are thrilled and proud to release these new versions of our tales just in time for the December 3rd, International Day of Persons with Disabilities.”

The Fair Tales project books are freely accessible at all Odeabank locations. Digital versions of the tales are available for reading and listening on www.odeabank.com.tr/en and Odeabank’s YouTube channel.