JEDDAH, 11 June — The need to provide job opportunities for the visually impaired was strongly emphasized at a medical conference in Jeddah.
“Visual impairment has become an important social problem in this part of the world and so efforts should be made to meet their needs,” Mohammed Towfik Bellow, project manager at Ebsar Center, Magrabi Hospital, told a meeting on “A new attitude toward visual impairment in Saudi Arabia,” organized at the hospital on Saturday.
In his presentation on “New attitude toward low-vision and blindness,” Bellow highlighted the increasing incidence of visual impairment and made recommendations to help victims meet their needs.
Quoting a study conducted by the center last year, he said an estimated 230,000 people in Saudi Arabia were visually impaired. “Considering the country’s population growth at 3.27 percent, the number is expected to increase to 500,000 by 2025,” Bellow said.
He called for early intervention programs, increased public awareness to reduce consanguineous marriages and better means to avoid medical accidents during childbirth. He also suggested that diseases such as glaucoma be controlled and public awareness increased about accidents that lead to eye injury. Low vision evaluation must be conducted and adaptive devices provided. There was also need for offering rehabilitation programs and developing training programs for professionals.
He sought help for the visually impaired to continue their education and enforcement of low vision handling and rehabilitation to be covered by medical insurance.
The study, meant for determining and highlighting the needs of the visually impaired in the Kingdom and the rest of the Gulf region, covered 242 people of both genders and different ages.
Of those surveyed, 85 percent said they did not receive any service, said Bellow who was born in Jeddah in 1961 and due to his visual impairment retired from Saudi Arabian Airlines in October 1992.
