New channel for the visually challenged launched
ABU DHABI: The National Archives now provides a modern device that enables people with visual challenges to read pages from the Nation’s memory in Braille.
This device (QUOTATION FOR BRAILLENOTE TOUCHE PLUS) enables a significant segment of society to access and read publications that have been uploaded to the National Archives website. Under a framework of corporate social responsibility, this opens important pages of UAE history and cultural heritage to those with visual challenges, thus strengthening their sense of belonging to the homeland and loyalty to its wise leadership.
In addition to reissuing some of its publications in Braille, the National Archives has made available a modern technical device that directly converts texts writen in a specific format into embossed Braille. This device, which is similar in design to a tablet computer, uploads files writen in Microsot Word format, simultaneously transforming them into Braille.
The National Archives provides a suitable place in the “Customer Happiness Hall” at its headquarters in order for users to read uploaded content in Braille format. Moreover, the National Archives will work to achieve maximum benefit from the device by featuring it in training courses and reading workshops in exhibitions and other places that are organized for people with visual impairments and challenges.
A few months ago, in cooperation with the Zayed Higher Organisation for People of Determination, the National Archives republished its book, Zayed: From Challenges to Union, in Braille in order to facilitate access to the record of achievements of the nation’s founding leader, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
The National Archives has printed three educational booklets in Braille as well: “Zayed from Challenges to Union”, “Khalifa: A Journey into the Future” and “Qasr Al Hosn 1795-1966”. These have been gited to the Emirates Association for the Visually-impaired. In addition, the National Archives organises lectures with a national content and participates in major events of interest to persons with visual impairment.
Last month, as part of the continuous cooperation and strategic partnership between the National Archives and the Ministry of Education (MOE), the National Archives has supplemented the curricula for social studies and national education in state schools with short historical documentaries that support the curriculum, explain its details, and enrich students’ visual and mental memory of the nation’s principles.
The initiative seeks to expand the loyalties of students and their sense of belonging, establishes their national identities, and creates a historical memory for them.