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Sustainability lessons for the disabled at innovation centre

Dubai - The centre is a new learning facility, added to Dubai Rehabilitation Center for the Disabled in line with the Year of Giving

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The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) launched a specialised innovation centre to enhance creativity among disabled students and integrate them into the country's vision of sustainability.
The centre is a new learning facility, added to Dubai Rehabilitation Center for the Disabled in line with the Year of Giving, to prepare students with disabilities for the job market and include them in the innovation drive implemented by the government.
It was inaugurated by Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Supreme Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and Najla bin Mohammed Al Awar, Minister of Community Development, along with Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of the Dewa.
Through its eight corners, the Dewa Innovation Centre is equipped with robotics, smart and interactive screens and 3D printing to teach over 150 students of different physical and mental disabilities the soft skills needed at the workplace, and educate them on renewable energy.
The facility will receive students of other centres for special needs.
"The special needs segment has to understand impact of these technologies over next generation, and they have to be aware of how to use it since they're also part of the society," said Khawla Al Mehairi, vice-president of marketing and corporate communication at the Dewa.
She added the utility service worked for the past six months with the Dubai Rehabilitation Center to introduce the right tools that fit different needs. "We needed to programme the robots, for example, to suit their needs. Many disabled students have strong visual abilities, so understanding their learning curve is important to providing them with the right tools that will help them translate their ideas into actions."
The Dewa currently has 16 employees with disabilities on board, with goals of hiring more in the future. The facility is meant to increase number of disabled employees through equipping them with skills. "Breaking the ice and limitations, while supporting families with low financial capabilities is the main goal," she said.
sherouk@khaleejtimes.com

Eight corners of Dewa Innovation Centre

1. Fantasy Corner: A smart interactive screen to support the imagination and creativity of students with disabilities.
2. The Junior Innovator Corner: Free learning tools and devices to develop the mobility of disabled students by making simplified models of robots, geometric shapes and architectural models.
3. The Solar Energy Corner: Contributes to getting environmental concepts linked to disabled students' lives through a set of environmental tools designed to generate power.
4.The Robot Corner: Contains several kinds of buildable moving robots, such as cranes, trucks and automatic vehicles. Students can build robots according to guidebooks or their calculations.
5. The NOW Robot Corner: A 50cm-tall robot that can be programmed using simple language.
6. The 3D Corner: Contains two state-of-the-art 3D printing machines to enable students to print cups, fruits and toys, and produce 3D arm casts or leg braces for treatment.
7. The Reading Corner: To enable students to read individually or in groups with smart pens that help in storytelling.
8. Dewa's Smart Services: Allows the students to make use of the Ash'ir initiative by Dewa for people with hearing impairment.