Dr Hessa al-Jaber speaking at the function

By Arvind Nair
RIGHT to knowledge and connectivity are fundamental to every citizen, including the special needs people, a senior official has said.
Dr Hessa al-Jaber, secretary-general of the Supreme Council for Information and Communication Technology (ictQATAR), said everyone in Qatar had a responsibility to ensure that the “miracle of technology” was available to all. But, often, “technology is not accessible to the disabled”.
Dr Hessa al-Jaber was speaking at a function held to announce the upgrading of ictQATAR’s website (http://www.ictQATAR.qa) to make it accessible to people with visual, hearing,  motor  and  cognitive impairments.
The announcement, which coincided with the UN’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities, was made at a Forum on Assistive Technology for the Visually Impaired.

At the panel discussion (from left) are Auda Hazim, Nooh al-Hadeedi, Said Ghazzi, Hayat Heji and Anirban Lahiri.   Pictures: Jayaram Korambil

The website had been enhanced to fully comply with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Level AA accessibility standards, officials said.
The upgraded website is part of ictQATAR’s ongoing effort to provide universal access to people with disabilities.
The latest update will elevate ictQATAR’s site from WAI “A” Compliance to a minimum of WAI “AA” Compliance as outlined in W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines. This is the second highest level.
The upgrade features a full review of the existing website code, updating items such as navigation links and alternative image names. Multimedia content is accompanied by text descriptions to ensure that all users can understand the audio or visual content, regardless of their impairments.
Further upgrades were also made to the content management system used to maintain the site to ensure that all future content is “AA” accessible.
“About 650mn people worldwide live with disabilities at any one time”, said Dr Hessa al-Jaber.
“We all need to be aware of this group’s unique needs and work to create an information society that is truly inclusive. I am proud that ictQATAR has taken this step forward in providing universal access and complying with international standards, and I hope that this will serve as an inspiration for others to take similar steps.”
Dr Hessa al-Jaber said the ICT served to remove dividing lines between those who have and those who have not. She told the special needs people that not to limit their ambitions.
“Sky is the limit if you believe in yourselves”.
Auda Hazim, of Nattiq Technologies, which developed the website, said the new technology was required so that even the visually impaired people could take part in the development of the society.
Nooh al-Hadeedi, a visually impaired technology user, said the new developments had greatly helped him. “Before, I used to feel that I couldn’t do what I wanted to do”. Assistive technologies have opened up immense possibilities, he added.
Said Ghazzi, EPG sales manager of Microsoft, said currently there were free softwares available on many websites. If a matter is converted to Daisy format, it could help people with various impairments like blindness and dyslexia to use computers.
The function included a panel discussion on the use of assistive technology.
The participants, mostly special needs people, included Hayat Heji, director of al-Noor Institute, Nooh al-Hadeedi, both visually impaired, and Anirban Lahiri, a Carnegie Mellon graduate, who is confined to a wheelchair due to spinal muscular atrophy (Kugelbert disease). Earlier, Anirban was described by Dr Hessa al-Jaber as a role model and an inspiration.