Visually-impaired Al Hadidi sees way to new achievement

Muscat: His world is nothing but darkness, but visually impaired Nooh Bin Talib Al Hadidi has marched along brightly after one success after another, with a dream to serve other blind people in future.

After securing 96.31 per cent marks in his Higher Secondary examination from Noor Institute for the Blind in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Al Hadidi is joining Arkansas State University in the US to pursue further studies in Computer Sciences.

"Once I complete my research, I would like to return here and start a science and technology school exclusively for the blind," he told Gulf News about his dream.

He is confident that his dream will come true one day. "I want to prove that the blind people can achieve what others with good vision can, after all the function of the brain is the same for both," reckons the brilliant blind pupil, who will be studying in the US with the other normal students.

One of four siblings, Al Hadidi lost his eyesight at the age of seven months due to retina related complications. "I don't know the reasons but my elder sister is also blind," he said.

He says that like him most blind people also live normal lives. For that, he says: "Patience is the key."

His claim is somewhat justified when one sees Al Hadidi's website, who is backed for his US trip by the Al Noor School for the Blind in Oman.

The site is at (http://www.batechno.com). "I have had help from my blind Jordanian friend Mohammad Al Shera in developing this website and we plan to take it further," he said. He says that visually impaired people can do anything on computers through digital documents.

"Like me there are so many blind people who are good with the computers," he said.

Al Hadidi also pointed out that computers had helped improve awareness among the blind people as well as about them.

However, at the same time, he rues lack of Arabic material in Braille. "We do have some Braille work in literature but very little Braille material for science studies," he said, adding that someone must take it up to create more and more Braille material in Arabic.

He thanked the Al Noor School for the Blind in Oman and his mentor and Omani philanthropist Barka Al Bakry, who is actively involved in improving the lives of visually impaired Omanis.

Although the latest figures are not available, according to Al Bakry, there could be fewer blind people in Oman now than the 11,000 counted during the 2003 census. "Medical services have improved and also people are more aware now, helping us reduce the population of the blind," she said.

There may be only 11,000 blind people in Oman but Al Hadidi would like the authorities to consider their needs. One such, he pointed out, was the need to install talking traffic lights. "In many countries they have speaking traffic lights for the visually impaired. Why can't we have it?"

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