Watch: UAE medicine boxes to have labels in Braille

Dubai - The labelling will be available in Arabic, English, and Urdu languages.

By Web report

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Published: Wed 10 Mar 2021, 12:47 PM

Last updated: Wed 10 Mar 2021, 12:48 PM

The UAE has launched a new initiative to provide medication instruction labels in Braille in order to help the visually impaired read medicine labels independently.

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The move was undertaken by the Ministry of Health and Prevention (Mohap) to protect the rights of people of determination and provide all the appropriate services to support their integration into society.

The Braille labelling was prepared by experts and printed at the printing press of the Zayed Higher Organization for People of Determination (ZHO), the UAE’s only facility that provides such a service.

“The UAE is one of the first countries in the world to apply Braille to drug packages, something that constitutes a significant development in the innovation of the pharmaceutical field locally and regionally,” said Dr Amin Hussein Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary at Mohap's Public Health Policy and Licenses.

He explained that the Braille labelling will be available in Arabic, English, and Urdu languages to make it easier for the visually impaired to deal with their prescribed medications without seeking help.

ZHO provides a range of integrated services that aim at rehabilitating disabled people, especially the blind, for inclusion into the community. It is concerned with the spread of Braille in public life and in all facilities.

This is in addition to providing many services for the visually impaired people, using the UAE’s only printing press that prints educational materials (curricula and teaching aids) for students, besides printing literary materials such as cultural publications and all kind of stories in Braille.

Commenting on the initiative, a beneficiary said, "I want to thank the people in charge of this initiative... to make the blind in the same position as the sighted. They complement each other: One sees with eyes, the other feels with hands."

Medication instructions must be clear, he stressed, adding that he hoped the service would be available soon across the country.

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Photo: MohapUAE/Twitter
Photo: MohapUAE/Twitter

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