(20 January 2020)
The Zayed Higher Organisation for People of Determination, ZHO, represented by its Blind Care Department completed printing and distributing school textbooks for visually impaired students in government and private care and rehabilitation centres, and in integrated schools at the state and university levels.
This was done for the second semester of the academic year 2019-2020, with 50 students benefiting from this initiative.
Naima Abdul Rahman, Director of the Department, confirmed the organisation’s commitment to completing the task of printing and delivering textbooks to visually impaired and blind students by the start of the second semester without any delays to ensure their satisfaction.
Rahman noted that the ZHO has completed printing all the textbooks in Braille, as tasked to the Blind Care Department by the Curriculum Department of the Ministry of Education for the second semester.
She explained that 514 hard copies and 428 soft copies of textbooks have been printed, through which visually impaired and blind students can browse school textbooks on computers and special programmes written in Braille for different educational levels, whether general education or university education.
ZHO’s Blind Care Department has the only printing facility for the blind in the country, which was transferred to the organisation on 24th January 2006, under the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
The department provides numerous educational services to people with visual impairments, including printing books, school curricula, exams, academic summaries, teaching aids, books, and stories in Braille and enlarged forms for the blind or visually impaired students, in addition to providing them with training services.