The BA strives to promote social inclusion of not only blind children but also of children with special needs, as well as children with different types of mental and physical disabilities. Our goal is to develop their skills, and to raise public awareness and tolerance of their special needs through provision of services to the children and their families. The BA is leading a pilot project for the welfare of special needs children: slow learners, blind, deaf, hearing impaired and mild Down Syndrome children. The Special Libraries for Children and Young People employ various specialized and targeted programs and classes that can develop the skills of children with special needs and promote a computer knowledge base for the disabled. Hardware, software, educational training kits, and other resources that support the appropriate needs of the children with different types of disabilities are available at the CH and YP Libraries, such as touch screens, adaptive keyboards and adaptive mouse for better fine motor control. Many programs and activities developed by experts in the field of Special Education are offered to children with different types of disabilities. In addition to group programs organized through non-governmental organizations (NGOs), schools and centers serving individuals with special needs, programs for teachers and parents are also scheduled on a monthly basis.The program presents a variety of courses, such as Know your City, Learn about your Senses, Sorting Colors and Shapes, Picture Classification, Animal Habitats, and Jobs. As part of the program, computer courses as well as literacy skills and basic language ones are also being offered to children with disabilities in order to enhance their cognitive, computer, reading and writing skills.
This project aims at producing Digital Talking Books (DTB) for the print-disabled using recording and production tools and software based on the International Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) standard, thus allowing easy navigation by the users. To achieve this goal, the BA with the aid of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) grant, established a fully equipped professional recording studio, acquired DAISY software and hardware Tools (production, playback) and trained personal on DAISY production techniques. So far, 35 DAISY books have been produced; and there are other 8 books in the production process. The Taha Hussein Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired succeeded in producing the Holy Qur’an in DAISY format, allowing full audio and full text viewing at the same time. This is the first Arabic Quran in DAISY to be published in the Arab and Islamic region.
The Taha Hussein Library has adopted an outreach program, that aims at teaching blind and visually impaired children ways to discover the world around them and express themselves through creating arts. The program consists of a series of workshops targeting young children in grade 1 and 2 at El Nour School for Blind Children. This Arts Education Program provides various teaching techniques and instruments such as argil, clay, raised puzzle and special painting boards that enable blind and visually impaired children to learn how to express themselves using these tools. The sessions include touching and examining different shapes such as fruits, and learning how such a three-dimensional object can be drawn on a flat sheet using special boards for the blind that provides raised line drawings. Another example of the sessions is discovering the features of the human face by touching each other’s faces. Using clay, the blind children then sculpt and mold different faces.