Dubai: Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has launched two manuals for the visually impaired. The manuals will help spread awareness about road safety and use of Dubai metro.

The braille language manual about the metro was published in cooperation with Emirates Association of the Visually Impaired, while the School Safety Manual was brought out in association with Tamkeen Foundation a subsidiary of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).

The manuals were launched as part of ‘My Community a Place for All’ initiative by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of the Executive Council. The initiative aims at converting Dubai into a fully friendly city for special needs by 2020.

The School Safety Manual will be distributed to blind students in schools, with the help of KHDA.

“This step is taken in implementation of Shaikh Hamdan’s initiative to convert Dubai special needs friendly city. It also comes under a broader framework of boosting the effectiveness of the existing projects and introducing new ones to maximise the participation and integration of this important segment in the community,” said Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA.

He added that the campaign also aims at figuring out new avenues for bypassing all obstacles in the way of enabling the disabled to positively engage within their social environment.

The Dubai Metro manual for the visually impaired includes information about how to plan for the metro trip, how to access the metro stations and how to board the train, and use the Nol card.

RTA has published around 1,000 copies of which 300 will be distributed to the disabled centres and entities, and 700 copies will be placed at the information desks of the Dubai Metro stations.

In the next phase of the campaign RTA will publish three booklets in Braille language namely: The water taxi use manual, Dubai ferry use manual, and the Inter-city bus use manual. The manuals will be published next year.

“The RTA is keen on disseminating and promoting the traffic education among various categories of the disabled. In this regard it has compiled, in collaboration with Tamkeen Foundation, the school safety manual in braille language with a view to boosting the traffic safety concept amongst this category,” added Al Tayer.

As many as 500 School safety booklets have been published, which will be distributed in schools..

RTA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs, also held a training programme delivered in the sign language for the employees of the Traffic Awareness section to train them on dealing with the deaf and dumb in order to guide and educate road users on how to deal with the deaf along with a sticker bearing the expression (A deaf driver) to be affixed on the vehicles of those with hearing disabilities.