Abu Dhabi: The largest and only event of its kind in the Middle East, the ABILITIESme conference and exhibition, officially got under way in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday morning, with the focus of the event on addressing the needs of special needs persons.
The event brings together several different organisations and professionals from the UAE and abroad, discussing and sharing their ideas on how best to help and integrate special needs people into general society, such as schools and the country’s workforce.
The latest assistive technologies and rehabilitation solutions from around the world are also on display during the exhibition, with special needs people having the opportunity to try them out.
Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture, Youth and Development, inaugurated the event, and said, “Our presence and support to ABILITIESme conference and exhibition confirms that we live in a nation and country that is keen to enable its sons and daughters, and to provide them with a decent life where they can enjoy education, employment, health care and fully contribute to opportunities in society.”
Dr Amal Al Qubaisi, Director-General for Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec), highlighted the important work Adec has done for special needs children in the education system, during her speech at the conference. She noted how the number of schools providing help for special needs children has increased to 202, an increase of 40 per cent, and that 97 per cent of special needs students were enrolled in government-run Adec schools.
She added that these schools are able to deal with 20 different types of disabilities, with well-trained staff and teachers who are able to look after the children. She noted that these numbers was proof of Adec’s commitment to helping special needs children.
Dr Amal mentioned how every child deserves an education, and that special needs children are the future of the country, and that Adec has several programmes to help and support them. She also stressed the benefit of conferences like ABILITIESme as it gives an important focus on the subject.
Gulf News also spoke to one of the speakers at the conference, Dr Lucy Miller, the founder of the SPD [sensory processing disorder] foundation. She spoke of her pleasure at being involved in such a conference that puts a major emphasis on helping special needs people, saying. “It’s wonderful, I think Abu Dhabi is in a position to make itself a leader in helping with special needs, and it’s great to be able to be a part of that. Events like this help everybody recognise that people with disabilities are people first, and disabilities second.”
Dr Miller specifically helps children with sensory processing issues, and is looking to lend her expertise and research to the UAE community as well, “it’s just great to be able to share, disabilities is a multi-disciplinary problem, we need to work together, and we need to collaborate. The UAE is going in a good direction, the infrastructure needs continued support and continued funding to help families and experts.”
Sami Zaatari is a trainee at Gulf News
