AFB Press and Nattiq Technologies cooperate to benefit Arabic-speaking visually impaired users

This agreement enhances Nattiq and AFB Press' commitment to serve blind and visually impaired people regardless of their language whenever possible. AccessWorld® offers detailed reports and articles on assistive technologies and organizations serving blind and visually impaired people. It is a bi-monthly online free publication available at www.afb.org/accessworld.

There are over 7 million Arabic-speaking blind and visually impaired people in the Middle East. The majority of this large group can't read English resulting in a feeling of being left out without an up-to-date timely and reliable source of information in their mother tongue. Arabic translations of AccessWorld® articles will provide them with a valuable venue to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the adaptive technology field. " The majority of Arabic speaking visually impaired users are always wondering about the latest technology and news of interest to them. They feel frustrated because their English is not good enough to comprehend contents displayed on English based links," said Auda Hazeem, Nattiq's CEO, " With our agreement with AFB Press, we provide them with a valuable service free of charge where they find the AccessWorld® articles in Arabic, " he continued. The translated articles are expected to be posted at Nattiq's web site starting from early 2006. Nattiq's website records an average of 250 visits per day. Visitors of the site will find another reason to continue to frequent the site with the availability of the translated articles.