Dubai launches campaign to help deaf drivers

Dubai, Jan 17 (IANS/WAM) The Roads and Transport Authority of Dubai has launched an initiative to sensitise road users to deaf drivers and alert motorists to vehicles driven by people with hearing disabilities.

Officials said the initiative was launched by the Traffic and Roads Agency in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education.

It would comprise an educative bulletin written in Braille that would be distributed to blind students, lectures in sign language for deaf people and visits by traffic awareness teams to autism centres and schools dedicated to people with special needs.

The objective is to educate drivers on how to deal with hearing impaired people and alert them that the driver in front is deaf.

A brochure would explain how to deal with people suffering from hearing loss, and a poster would be affixed to vehicles driven by people with hearing disability.

Readers of the poster will be aware that the driver is deaf and will not respond to alarm sounds made by other motorists.

The core message of the initiative is to educate people that deaf drivers can drive vehicles like other motorists, but their focus on the road hinges on visual and kinetic perception rather than the sense of hearing.

—IANS/WAM

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IANS 2013-01-17 21:42:05