Today marks the start of the 45th week of the Arab Deaf, under the slogan “The Deaf Right to an Affordable Marriage Supported by Community Institutions”, at a time when the number of people with disabilities who have hearing disabilities registered in the Ministry of Community Development data exceeded, according to official statistics obtained by «Emirates Today» more than 2,600 people, compared to more than 350 million people with hearing disabilities worldwide, according to the latest global reports.
The Arab Deaf Week was launched based on the recommendations of the second conference of the Arab Federation for Organizations Working with the Deaf, which was held in Damascus from April 24 to 26 of 1974, and celebrates the Arab Deaf Week during the last week of April of each year, where associations and institutions are sponsored by Deaf people in the Arab world are a media and human rights demonstration to publicize deafness and prevent it, and to raise awareness of the rights of deaf people, their capabilities and various kinds of problems.
The celebration of the Arab Deaf Week this year comes at a time when governments and countries all over the world face challenges on more than one level, especially in the face of the emergence of the new Corona virus and the protection and awareness of individuals and societies of ways to prevent it and combat it as a global epidemic. Since the beginning of the global epidemic, the UAE has rushed to use sign language to spread awareness messages about how to prevent corona virus to ensure the protection of people with hearing disabilities, as it went to broadcast video material explaining to them the risks of the virus.
For its part, Wafa Hamad Bin Sulaiman, director of the Department of Welfare and Rehabilitation of People of Determination at the Ministry of Community Development, told «Emirates Today» that the number of people with hearing disabilities registered in the Ministry of Determination Card System in the ministry reached 2626, until the end of last March, indicating the importance And the necessity of registering in the card system so that the ministry and the concerned authorities can monitor the needs of people of determination from different groups and provide the required services to them.