KUWAIT: The opening ceremony of the Asian Blind Union Conference kicked off on Wednesday in cooperation with Kuwait Blind Association (KBA) and in the presence of 24 country representatives from across Asia. Scheduled to run for three days, the conference addressed critical topics and issues concerning visually impaired individuals.
In his opening speech, representative of the Minister of Social Affairs and Family and Childhood Affairs, Hamidi Al-Mutairi, praised the importance of the cooperation between Kuwait Blind Association and Asian Blind Union (ABU) in organizing such an event. He specifically highlighted the conference’s noble purpose in aiming to help the visually impaired reach self-reliance and maintain independence in both personal and professional aspects by addressing the challenges that are hindering them in their daily lives.
President of ABU Santosh Rungta said the cost of excluding the visually impaired from participating in community work has proved to be higher than the cost of including them. Therefore, there has been a distinctive shift on global and national levels from exclusion to inclusion that hasn’t only benefited the blind community, but has also benefited the community at large, he pointed out.
He recognized this cooperation with KBA marks a crucial step in developing ABU’s activities and starting a new chapter, ushering in an era of equality, opportunity, security and recognition of rights of persons with disabilities. Chairman of KBA Fayiz Al-Azmi expressed his pride in Kuwait for always taking the lead in recognizing the rights of the blind and other disabled persons, which is demonstrated by the laws that Kuwait has enacted in the past decades. He pledged to his fellows in ABU that Kuwait will provide unlimited support to help achieve sustainable development for all visually impaired people by integrating them into society.
General Secretary of KBA and Secretary of ABU Mansour Al-Enzi said this meeting is exceptional, since it accompanies workshops addressing diverse topics related to the visually impaired in the sectors of education, modern technology, social and psychological care and entertainment. Yousef Kazem, the official spokesman of the digital government application (Sahel), said the app’s team, which aims to facilitate government transactions for all members of society on one platform, is extending its efforts to develop its services to be more accessible and user-friendly for visually impaired individuals.
Kazem added the Sahel team is working diligently to implement the Kuwaiti disability law by ensuring that visually impaired individuals are given equal rights like the rest of the community in facilitating their use of these digital products. He explained the team is working on introducing audio description technology for notifications and application services, in addition to working on linking the application with various state institutions to exempt people with disabilities from government transaction fees in accordance with Kuwaiti law, which stipulates this.