- JEDDAH: The General Directorate of Passports has started training its employees on how to communicate better with the hard of hearing at Saudi airports and other entry points as part of its efforts to improve facilities for disabled people.
Twenty-seven passport officials completed their training courses to help people with hearing impairments pass through airports in the Kingdom smoothly.
The directorate organized a ceremony to mark the graduation of the first batch of officials who successfully completed their training.
The ceremony was attended by Maj. Gen. Zaid Al-Turaiqi, director of the Passports Institute, Salah Al-Maliki, cultural activities supervisor at the Club for the Deaf in Riyadh, and Saeed Al-Qahtani, head of the Saudi Federation of Sports for the Deaf.
The Passports Institute worked with an institute specializing in sign language to organize the training course.
The trainers have been taught how to read sign and body language when dealing with hearing impaired passengers.
The trainees were also provided with training kits consisting of the rules and regulations of the directorate concerning passengers with hearing problems.
It consists of 10 lessons, including a preface about deafness, its causes, sign language, and the Arabic letters and figures used in sign language.
The training kit was prepared by professor Abdul Hadi Al-Amri, trainer and translator of sign language at the Department of Education in Riyadh.
Al-Amri was assisted by Lt. Col. Abdul Aziz Al-Saaduni, director of programs and training courses at the Passports Institute, Lt. Col. Saleh Al-Murabba, director of training at the directorate, and Fahd Rashdan, an official of the training department at the directorate.
