JEDDAH, 19 March 2008 — After the Ebsar Foundation for Rehabilitation and Vision Impairment Services complained to Prince Abdulaziz ibn Ahmed, president of the National Committee for the Blind, in February regarding accommodating blind people in private sports club, their dream of enrolling in local sports clubs became true finally.

Prince Abdulaziz in turn took up the complaint with Saudi Youth Welfare President Prince Sultan ibn Fahd who immediately responded to their concerns.

Prince Sultan issued an order on Feb. 23 to all Saudi private sports clubs to start preparing the right environment for people with special needs, to accept them as soon as possible and give them subscriptions for reasonable fees.

“We are glad that it happened finally but we hope the rules and regulations will be strictly implemented,” said Muhammad Bellow, Ebsar’s executive director. He added that those who do not follow the rules should be warned and punished so that other clubs will make necessary preparations.

“The rules of the club doesn’t allow us to enroll anyone with special needs,” and “Sorry, we do not offer facilities to special needs,” were the words special needs people wishing to enroll in sports clubs used to hear in the past, he said.

“Where can they go if the public is not yet ready to mingle with them and the private clubs do not want to accept them?” he said. “Those who are blind also need facilities to exercise.”

Bellow, who is blind, said he used to visit different clubs trying to enroll, but was turned away every time.

Saudi Arabia has no effective handicapped rights laws and people with special needs must rely on charity activism to pursue their rights. Bellow said that while there may be laws, they mean nothing when people are allowed to make personal judgments. “They’re not following any rules,” he said. “It’s just people’s personal preferences.”

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah announced last year he would to build five sports clubs for people with special needs and promised to support them financially with SR500,000 annually.

Bellow called for stronger regulations to ensure handicapped access and rights in public places.

“They must not get building permits unless they meet the requirements to make it safe for both normal people and people with special needs,” he said.

Bellow said he wants to work on how banks treat blind people. He claimed that banks ask blind people to bring two witnesses with them simply to open accounts. He added that some banks even refuse to give ATM cards to blind people based on concerns that the cards would be easier to steal.

“This is totally unacceptable,” Bellow said.