Arabic company receives international e-inclusion Award for Disabilities Software

The software package that was recognized this important accolade is Sakhr's Ibsar software, a unique program offering the blind and visually impaired an effective tool for interaction with modern computer technologies.

The Award ceremony was part of the World Summit Award (WSA) held in Venice (Italy) as part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a global UN backed initiative to promote e-Content.

Al-Sharekh received this award from Stjepan Mesic, President of the Republic of Croatia, Leonel Fernandez, President of the Dominican Republic, and Alfred Gusenbauer, Federal Chancellor for the Republic of Austria, who attended the Gala in addition to many other world leaders and presidents.

Ibsar was honored with an award by decision of the Grand Jury at a meeting held in Croatia where 36 jurors and experts from around the world examined over one thousand electronic projects nominated from 160 countries.

The awards fall into eight categories: e-Government, e-Health, e-Learning, e-Entertainment, e-Culture, e-Science, e-Business, e-Inclusion.

The World Summit Award, presented at the United Nation's World Summit, is given to the best electronic projects nominated from around the world; winners are announced and awards presented once every two years. This award was established in 2003 by the Secretary General of the United Nations on the opening day of WSIS in Geneva.

Al-Sharekh expressed his pride at receiving this award as this fits perfectly within the company philosophy of allowing access to the new technology to more and more people across the globe.

"Everyday at Sakhr, we seek to enhance knowledge democratization by helping the blind and visually impaired to deal skillfully with personal computers and related applications. Our objective is to enable them to find a social and economic role for themselves by pursuing employment and enabling them to meet the demands of their jobs to the fullest extent," commented Fahad Mohammed Al-Sharekh, CEO, Sakhr Software.

"We would like to share this award with them."

Mr. Mohammed Al-Sharekh, the founder of Sakhr Software, has also received an award from WSA two years ago for Sakhr's translation engine, the only translation engine worldwide to be honored in this way.

Ibsar is a comprehensive, integrated solution for the blind and visually impaired, and the most widely used screen reader throughout the Arab world, due to its effective and efficient conversation of text to high-quality, audible human voice, which enables users to deal professionally with most computer applications both in English and Arabic.

This solution has been recently adopted by many Arab countries as an essential tool within the framework of social development programs helping integrate the blind into their surrounding communities.

Many such development projects are supported by the United Nations Development Program as an ICT development platform in the Arab region, under a project entitled ICTARB, or come closer in Arabic. These projects are implemented in many Arab countries such as Kuwait, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Tunisia, Morocco and Yemen.