The Community College of Qatar (CCQ) announced the launch of its assistive technology station in cooperation with Qatar Assistive Technology Center (Mada). As part of the two parties’ strategic partnership, the station aims to support students with special needs and integrate them in out-of-class learning experience and activities. Located in CCQ’s Lusail Campus, the station was inaugurated in the presence of Dr. Mohamed Al-Naemi, CCQ President, and Mr. Rashid Al Mannai - Shared Services Manager at Mada, as well as a number of senior officials from both parties.
The inauguration ceremony included an introductory tour around the station led by Mada ICT Accessibility Expert who gave an overview of the available assistive technology devices and solutions. 53 in total, the devices vary from computers and tablets to augmentative and alternative communication programs and solutions, as well as electronic amplifiers and control panels to meet the educational requirements of people with disabilities, such as motor and sensory impairments, learning difficulties and communication disorders.
On this occasion, Dr. Mohamed Al-Naemi, CCQ President, welcomed the attendees and expressed his pride in this partnership by saying, “We are proud of our strategic partnership and ongoing cooperation with Mada in the field of digital accessibility to integrate people with special needs in the educational process and to empower them academically. The College’s various policies guarantee an equal right to education for all students, as well as providing students with special needs with the appropriate auxiliary services and general educational adjustments.”
He added, “Today, as we launch the assistive technology station, we are even more proud of creating awareness that willpower, diligence, and perseverance is all that a student needs to excel. The station affirms our commitment to creating equal opportunities to ensure the involvement of people with functional limitations in inclusive digital education. This comes as part of our contribution towards Qatar National Vision 2030 and Qatar’s 2nd National Development Strategy which stresses the importance of the quality of education in promoting human development as a pillar of the strategy.”
Mr. Rashid Al Mannai, Shared Services Manager at Mada, said, “Inclusive digital education is a priority pillar in Mada strategy. We have been working proudly with our maximum effort to leave our distinguished footprint in this field. All grace to Allah, these efforts were crowned with Qatar’s international achievement: obtaining the first place in the Digital Accessibility Rights Evaluation Index. Since signing our strategic partnership with CCQ in 2019, many achievements have been accomplished that 96% of the agreement goals have been achieved so far. This includes capacity building and providing advisory services at the level of policies and access to digital platforms, educational resources and technological solutions with the aim to implement best practices and international standards in the field of inclusive digital education.”
He added, “In line with our mission and strategy which is aligned with Qatar National Vision 2030 and the sustainable development goals, Mada Center invested in building the assistive technology station at CCQ’s Campus in Lusail. The station includes 53 assistive technology devices and solutions to support the educational needs of people with disabilities. We hope this station will achieve our goal of promoting inclusive education per best practices to provide students with disabilities with the appropriate accessible technology devices and solutions, as well as raising awareness about assistive technology and accessible solutions and their uses in education among the administrative and academic staff. We also support designing the curriculum to address assistive technology and accessible solutions."
As part of the agreement, three CCQ employees received training on digital accessibility and assistive technology through Mada’s Distinguished Users of Assistive Technology Program, which is a training program accredited by the University of Dublin in Ireland. Through a group of international and local experts, the program aims at graduating distinguished specialists who are able to use the latest technological solutions in the education sector. Mada also presented six specialized workshops about digital accessibility, assistive technology, and accessible solutions and their uses in inclusive digital education, as well as a number of other workshops for CCQ academic and administrative staff with the aim to raise awareness in these areas.
In addition, CCQ will introduce an academic course in Arabic in the fall semester of 2021 in cooperation with Mada. Entitled “Introduction to Digital Accessibility”, the course aims to build capacities in this field to enable students with disabilities to access the library resources. Mada also prepared a guide on best practices for digitally accessible libraries, which contains recommendations and guidelines that support libraries development to fulfill the needs of students with special needs and CCQ academic staff.
All these efforts come to contribute to the realization of Qatar National Vision 2030, and Qatar Second National Development Strategy that calls for ensuring quality, equitable and inclusive education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.
