Participants in the Gulf first virtual forum for e-learning to People with Disabilities on Wednesday recommended updating infrastructure of all educational institutions to ensure sustainability of online education system for students with disabilities. Participants in the forum, organized by Women's Institute for Development and Peace, stressed the necessity of exerting efforts to integrate people with disabilities in society through education. Head of the institute and the president of the forum, Kawthar Al-Jouan, said in a press statement that the forum also recommended the necessity of holding workshops and intensive training courses on e-learning for the visually impaired and their families by specialized educational and societal bodies. Al-Jouan added that the forum also recommended providing easy access to all official and government websites so that the blind can easily access and deal with them, and provide all academic curricula and university books in an electronic, non-pictorial format, for the benefit of students and teachers with visual impairment. The forum called for the design and development of a Gulf electronic platform for e-learning for people with disabilities in the GCC countries that attracts the best Gulf expertise, she added. The forum also called for designing and developing a communication network among specialists in the field, exchanging experiences and cooperating with the Arab Bureau of Education for the Arab Gulf States to draw up educational policies related to distance education, Al-Jouan explained. She stated that the forum stressed the importance of integrating virtual classrooms with e-learning platforms to achieve distance education in an accessible manner. She pointed out that the forum also recommended creating multiple virtual educational platforms that support students with autism through tutorials, and offering solutions for students with disabilities in light of pandemic. The official stated that the forum stressed the importance of the continuity of such forums to develop special education programs, exchanging experiences between Gulf countries and producing joint Gulf training programs. She explained that participants need to keep exchanging experiences with some advanced universities and institutes that have previous experiences in the process of training and qualifying students with disabilities in distance learning. — KUNA
