With encouragement, help and the right technical resources, the visually impaired of Israel's Palestinian community can develop skills to participate within society as confident citizens offering distinct and vital contributions. Al-Manarah's Library for the Visually Impaired produces and provides audio and Braille books to promote education and empower disabled persons with essential tools for self-advocacy, and lays the foundations for a lifetime of personal and professional development.
Arab persons with disabilities also face systemic marginalization vis-a-vis Israeli society as a whole,and acute discrimination and social exclusion from within the Palestinian society itself. In order to build independent lives, people with disabilities in the Arab community must overcome countless obstacles including prejudice and discrimination, alienation, and often total exclusion from the life of their communities.
Prejudices faced by persons with disabilities are manifest in a lack of personal agency over the setting of the learning agenda itself, a critical component in the formation of identity, emotional intelligence and inter-personal communication skills. To break patterns of neglect, marginalization and isolation, Arab persons with disabilities must have equal access to sources of information that can further their education, contribute to their empowerment, promote independence and self-efficacy.
Al-Manarah's Arabic Library for the Visually Impaired will promote human rights by providing critical educational resources and training for their utilization to Arab persons with disabilities in Israel. In conjunction with strategic advocacy for the realization of equal access in Israel, the envisaged project will strengthen a dynamic social framework through which Arab persons with disabilities can feel proud of their identity, and acquire pragmatic skill sets for self-actualization.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
