Under the patronage and in the attendance of Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy, Chancellor of the University of Sharjah, and with the aim of strengthening engagement and cooperation with the University students with hearing disabilities, the Disability Resource Center organized a sign language training and awareness workshop as well as the methods of facilitating those students in the classrooms.

Dr. Ahmad Alomosh, Director of Disability Resource Center, attended the workshop along with a number of University Vice Chancellors, College Deans, Centers' and Research Institutes' Directors, as well as faculty, staff members and students of disabilities from the various University colleges.

In his speech, Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy, Chancellor of the University, he expressed his gratitude to His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council, Ruler of Sharjah, and President of the University of Sharjah, for his comprehensive support that contributed to achieving the full empowerment of people with disabilities at the academic and societal levels, and the University of Sharjah has achieved the leadership role in supporting people with disabilities by being friendly to them. He continued noting that the number of students with disabilities enrolled in the University in various groups reached 204 male and female students, the hearing impaired (deaf) comprised 26 male and female students, or 13%. They are the ones provided with sign translation services, stressing that the University has paid special attention to them by providing sign language interpreters to facilitate the process of communication between hearing impaired students and the community and providing them with opportunities to acquire knowledge and information in the manner best suited to their capabilities and disabilities in order to ensure their full integration and adaptation in the University community. The University also works to provide all forms of care and support to them through academic, psychological, social and technical support, and raising awareness of their issues and struggles and taking all measures to achieve equal educational opportunities for them in the University's campus, in order to ensure adhering to the principle of equal opportunities.

The Workshop's program focused on training in the basics of sign language and dealing with the hearing impaired students, which comes as one of a series of programs implemented by the Disabilities Resource Center for People with Disabilities to prepare the University community in all its categories for effective communication with students with hearing disabilities, and in implementation of the activities of the Strategic Plan 2024 to make the University friendly to persons with disabilities.

In his speech, Dr. Ahmad Alomosh thanked the University administration and faculty and staff members therein for their continuous support and their keenness to provide all forms of academic support for people with hearing disabilities and for all groups of people with disabilities within the University, and work hard towards achieving educational integration for people with disabilities of different groups in the classroom environment, and their constant follow-up to provide the best educational practices to enable students with disabilities and to facilitate their access to academic success. He also stressed that the general goal of the training workshop is training and learning about sign language and how to communicate with people with hearing disabilities, and work to raise awareness within the University community of the various categories of disability and ways to communicate with them to reach a friendly university for people with disabilities according to the vision of the University 2024.

The training workshop activities included the presentation of the sign translation department for a number of sign language interpreters who joined the center recently, and the Center staff presented a number of segments related to learning sign language and the basic rule on which it is based, and the signals that are used. This included recognition of sign language letters, indicative terms used in university life, college names and some scientific terms, and general terms used in everyday life.