Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reform plan aims to empower people with disabilities so they can help shape the country’s future.

 

Nujood Al-Otaibi began losing her hearing at around the age of five. In Taif, the area in Saudi Arabia’s Makkah region where she was born, her affliction was initially mistaken for a common fever. But as the years passed, her deafness became progressively worse and, by the time she finished higher education, she was almost entirely dependent on hearing aids.

 

Living with disability in the Arab world is a challenge for many reasons despite increasing recognition by governments of the rights of persons with disabilities. Social stigma is believed to be one reason why only 2 percent of the Arab population is reported to be living with disability even though the corresponding figure for the world population is 6 percent.

 

Attitudes are changing, however, in part thanks to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform plan to uphold the rights of persons with disability and empower them to participate in shaping the country’s economic and social future.

It is also changing thanks to the creative renaissance sweeping the Kingdom, which has given social issues such as disability a new medium for public expression. For Al-Otaibi, this climate of artistic freedom has allowed her to open up about her own struggles, and from here she started her career