UAE literacy drive to provide reading classes for disabled children

ABU DHABI // The Ministry of Social Development is to launch its My Right to Read literacy drive for disabled Emirati children.

The plan involves reading classes for 200 disabled children at special needs centres during the next academic year, reported state news agency Wam.

Wafa Hamad bin Sulaiman, the director of the Department of Welfare and Rehabilitation of the Disabled, said the plan was in line with the directives of the UAE President Sheikh Khalifa, who declared 2016 as the year of reading.

The ministry has previously distributed free copies of books by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Miniser and Ruler of Dubai, to those with partial hearing and partial vision.

Salma Kanaan, head of the speech disorder department and head of the project, said that the literacy programme for the government disability centres also covers mental disabilities, such as Down syndrome and cerebral palsy, as well as children who have suffered brain injuries.