DOHA: Members of the Central Municipal Council (CMC) have recommended that Qatar Airways (QA) raises discounted fares for hearing-impaired Qataris from 25 percent to 50. An estimated 300 nationals are deaf.
The recommendation was made by the Services and Public Utilities Committee at its regular session yesterday.
Jassim bin Abdullah Al Malki, Vice-Chairman, CMC, and Director of the committee, said they had hosted Ali Obaid Al Sennary, Director, Qatar Center of Social Cultural for the Deaf, and his team and discussed the needs of people with hearing disabilities.
The meeting was told that there were about 300 deaf Qataris who avail themselves of some four flights a year and that it is affordable for QA provide 50 percent discount.
Other recommendations included translators for sign language at the airline’s offices to help the deaf book tickets and screens providing directions and translation in sign language all that is being broadcast at Hamad International Airport, at QA Lounge.
Some councillors asked the committee to include another recommendation for QA executives that all Qataris with special needs or disabilities should benefit from fare discounts.
According to Al Maliki, other recommendations raised by the centre included having the deaf exempted from paying at least 50 percent of housing loans.
He said a standard housing loan from the government is about QR600,000 and they wanted the deaf to pay half of it. He said it is possible as there are other categories of people, including widows, who have been exempted from paying half the loans.
The centre asked the committee to lobby authorities for sign language interpreters in all state institutions, teachers or instructors of sign language in schools, screens on intersections on roads to guide the deaf and restaurants to display images of food on the menu as some deaf people also have difficulty in reading.
The Peninsula
