Stop feeling sorry, accept them

DUBAI - Sharan Anil’s muscular dystrophy began progressing at the tender of six.

Now 21, he finds himself staying mobile through the use of a motorised wheelchair as he battles the muscle-eating disease head on.

Anil was among the many individuals invited to the inauguration of the Khalaf Al Habtoor Assistive Technology Resource Centre on Monday. Located inside the Zayed University campus in Academic City, the centre is named after the sole sponsor, and aims to balance the playing field for special needs students trying to complete their post-secondary education.

‘Special-needs students will succeed if they have the right equipment, otherwise they won’t be able to compete with other students,” said Fatma Ahmad Al Qassimi, from the university’s office of accessibility. Although the centre primarily caters to special-needs students from Zayed University, other students will be allowed to use the facility through a membership programme, Al Qassimi said.

The centre offers an array of equipment from talking dictionaries and Braille displays, to note takers for those with visual and motor limitations.

The Minister of Higher education and Scientific Research, Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, inaugurated the centre by praising Al Habtoor’s contribution towards the facility. While the donation amount hasn’t been released, estimates peg the centre’s cost at Dh1 million.

“It is my hope and mission in life ... to continue to support education for all students of all ages in the UAE and in every other place that I can, without differentiation between cultural or religious background,” Al Habtoor said.

Although Anil sees the centre as a step in the right direction, he said individuals with special needs in the UAE still face many challenges when it comes to the public’s perception.

“People should not see my special need, but they should look at what a person can do, as opposed to the disability,” Anil said, adding he’s written a poem that explains how he wants people to view him.

“What’s me is locked in my heart and to find the key just find my heart,” the budding artist said.

Alongside Anil at the inauguration was Gulshan Kavarana, his art teacher at Mawaheb art studio in Dubai.

Kavarana is a mother of a 15-year-old with Dravet syndrome, a disorder that leads to epileptic seizures usually beginning at infancy.

Kavarana said it’s difficult for her husband to take their daughter into public toilets in Dubai when she’s not around, as most are not separate from the general-public washrooms.

And the challenge doesn’t end there.

“We’ve also been asked to leave restaurants,” Kavarana said, adding her daughter’s seizures make people uncomfortable simply because a large chunk of the public in Dubai isn’t aware of individuals with special needs.

“It’s total ignorance, this ignorance cloud should be removed and anything like this centre is one big step, but we still need much, much more,” Kavarana said.

“You should stop feeling sorry, stop acting weird around them and just accept them.”

alizafar@khaleejtimes.com