The Zayed Higher Organization for People of Determination affirmed its keenness to promote the dissemination and use of the tactile writing system used for the blind or visually impaired, “Braille,” in all areas of life, based on its commitment to support efforts to empower and integrate people of determination into society, and to provide the finest means of care and rehabilitation for all categories of them. Those under its care, especially the blind and visually impaired.
His Excellency Abdullah Al Humaidan, Secretary General of the Zayed Higher Organization, said that the UAE, under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, “may God protect him,” attaches special importance to empowering groups of people of determination and integrating them into society in a way that ensures their effective participation in the process of progress and development, as well as the blind. Groups that receive all support from the state, referring in this context to the directives of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may God have mercy on him, to His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative in the Al Dhafra Region, regarding providing the first printer in the Braille language.
In a press statement on the occasion of World Braille Language Day, His Excellency reviewed the stages of support and interest of the wise leadership in this category, as it was established in 2000 by the Red Crescent Authority, a printing press for the blind, and its actual work began in 2001 AD, with the great vision of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, God Almighty willing. And the royal directives of Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, “Mother of the Emirates”, President of the General Women’s Union, President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation, and the message of its establishment and formation in its early stages was carried by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler’s Representative in the Al Dhafra Region, President The Emirates Red Crescent Authority, and the wife of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Her Highness Sheikha Shamsa bint Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, Assistant to His Highness the President of the Authority for Women’s Affairs.
He explained that under the royal directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, may God protect him, upon his assumption of the Crown Prince in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, on January 24, 2006, the Blind Printing Press joined the Zayed Higher Organization for People of Determination, and accordingly the Foundation began managing and operating the printing press to continue the process of giving to our children. Blind and visually impaired people across the country with the aim of enabling them to achieve educational and cultural integration with their colleagues in public and private education schools in the country.
For his part, His Excellency Abdullah Al Kamali, Executive Director of the Foundation’s People of Determination Sector, said that the Zayed Higher Organization, represented by the Blind Care Department, provides many specialized qualitative services. It also includes the only printing press in the country that prints all educational materials, school curricula, educational and cultural means, stories, and awareness books. In Braille for the blind and visually impaired.
He stressed the importance of organizing workshops and courses to prepare employees in government and private departments, institutions, and companies to deal with the blind, and to meet the needs and challenges facing the blind to fully integrate into society, by providing more facilitating services, environmental preparation of all facilities and establishments, and working to enhance the successes achieved by the state in this regard. Frame and complete.
For her part, Her Excellency Naima Abdul Rahman Al Mansouri, Director of the Foundation’s Blind Care Department, said that the celebration of “International Braille Language Day” aims to raise community awareness of the importance of language in the lives of the blind, as it is a means of reading to acquire education and knowledge, and to encourage the blind or those who suffer from severe weakness. It enables them to read and write, and consolidate their actual presence in their communities, as well as providing the opportunity to learn about the problems they may face. The celebration also aims to work on finding actual solutions to overcome their problems through the combined efforts of international organizations, most notably the World Health Organization.
She added that coinciding with the 52nd Union Day, the Blind Welfare Department issued 20 various publications in “Love of the Emirates” in Braille for the blind for different age groups in Arabic and English in cooperation with a number of publishing houses and authors, namely Dar Al-Hudhud for Publishing and Distribution, Dar Sama for Production, Publishing and Distribution, and writer Wafa Al-Amimi. And the Abu Dhabi Police General Command, and the Arabic Language Center of the Department of Culture and Tourism, with the aim of supporting the culture and heritage of the Emirates and national stories. Publications varied about the heroic martyrs in the memory of our blind children, and some of the laws specific to people of determination, such as the Wadima Child Protection Law, and the People of Determination Law.
Within the framework of the same initiative, the Foundation’s Blind Care Department distributed a group of these publications and stories to the 15 public libraries in the country, with the aim of enabling blind people who are patrons of those libraries to access them and enjoy reading these stories and novels.
Namah Al-Mansouri revealed that the number of students benefiting from the services of the Blind Care Department to print school curricula in the current academic year reached 33 students, bringing the total number of students to 906 students since 2006 at various educational levels. The number of Braille copies of the school curricula printed in Braille reached 578 paper copies for the semester. The first for the current year, bringing the total number of paper copies of the curriculum to 25,119 copies, while the total number of electronic copies for the first semester of the current year reached 651 copies out of a total of 8,183 copies since the launch of the service.
It is noteworthy that the number of entities benefiting from educational publications, pamphlets, and booklets written in Braille increased during the same period to reach 190 entities, including 10 entities during the year 2023, with 3,000 copies of educational and cultural publications, pamphlets, and stories written in Braille this year, while the number of beneficiaries of training services reached The field of the blind from 2016 until the present time has reached 200 beneficiaries. The number of beneficiaries of the consultation service in the field of the blind from 2021 to 2023 has also reached 450 consultations.
Braille is a display of alphabetical and numerical symbols using six dots that can be sensed by touch to represent each letter and number, including symbols for music, mathematics, and science. Blind and visually impaired people use the Braille language – which takes its name from the name of its inventor in the 19th century, the Frenchman Louis Braille – to read the same books and periodicals printed in visual script, ensuring that they obtain important information, which is considered an indicator of competence, independence and equality.
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