There should be an apex body above all the entities and centres that offer services to the people with disability in the country, some experts and parents concerned have suggested.
Local Arabic daily Arrayah reported yesterday that the creation of such an entity would ease the difficulties faced by those concerned due to the multiple entities they have to deal with to access the much needed services to improve their lives.
Parents and people in charge of some relevant societies told the daily there are a good number of centres that offer good services to the people with disability, but these come under different entities with each having its own programmes and systems.
For instance, the Shafallah Center is under the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, the Rowa Center under the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, and the Mada Center under the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
The parents stressed that the worst trouble for them is the absence of an electronic database of the child and his/her situation that include all information as soon as he/she is diagnosed with a disability.
In this way, the child could access all the services offered to the children of his/her category in the country through his/her ID number when approaching any of the entities and departments concerned.
Abdulaziz al-Jabir, a founding member of the voluntary committee for the employment of the people with disability, and an activist supporting their cause, recalled he has been urging for many years for the creation of a central entity to supervise all the relevant centres and departments.
He also stressed that different entities have different standards for deciding whether a person has disability or not.
However, if there was a unified entity, the standards will be easily applicable and services can be accessed with ease.
Dr Yousef al-Kazim, president of the Arab Union for Voluntary Work, stressed also the need for a unified entity to take care of all the affairs of the people with disability, as it would save the parents a lot of trouble as presently they have to deal with various entities to access different services.
