Wednesday 12 / February / 2025
Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman provides several services and facilities for people with disabilities. The Ministry of Social Development launched the guide of "Services and Facilities for Persons with Disabilities", which includes all the facilities provided to them by government and private agencies.
Among the governmental facilities provided by the Ministry of Social Development works to purchase rehabilitation services from private centers and providing it for free to people with disabilities. Such as issue car parking permit for people with disabilities and medical conditions for citizens and residents, and allocate play corners for children with disabilities, in addition to disbursing prosthetic devices.
The Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation allocates university scholarships for them, while the Ministry of Labor exempts them from fees for recruiting non-Omani workforce (domestic worker, nanny, private driver, nurse, and home health assistant), and calculates one worker with a disability for workers in Omanisation percentage for any enstitutions
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning exempts people with disabilities from paying the value of government land, regardless of its use, and the procedure for registering and documenting legal actions by transferring the notary to the residence of the person with a disability to implement this service if his condition so requires.
The Ministry of Health provides treatment and rehabilitation services for people with disabilities, prosthetics and orthotics, services provided by the Hearing, Balance and Speech Unit at Al-Nahda Hospital for people with hearing disabilities, mental health services provided to people with disabilities at Al-Masara Hospital, and respiratory care services for them when required. The need for this, whether during the period of hospitalization or at home, and the provision of assistive hearing devices "cochlear implants", and the disbursement of auxiliary aids to them.
The Royal Oman Police is working to provide exceptions for people with disabilities from the role system in its service centers, allocate a course of action to issue and renew the ID card without the presence of the person concerned, and provide wheelchairs for cases that require assistance during their visit for civil service, passports and residency, and exempting them from fees for registration, renewal and transfer of a driving license for private light vehicles, once during the year, provided that the monthly income does not exceed OMR 35.
The Oman Post Company exempts the concerned and recognized authorities from paying fees for sending up to seven kilograms of manuscripts and special materials sent to the category of persons with visual disabilities, and exempts some civil bodies concerned with disabilities from annual subscription fees more than once.
The Oman National Transport Company (Mwasalat) grants free cards to persons with visual impairments to use the company's buses to travel on all lines between cities, and provides buses equipped with special specifications to facilitate the transportation of persons with disabilities and others.
Among the civil and private facilities included in the guide, the Omani Association for Persons with Disabilities and its branches are working on equipping cars for people with physical disabilities, and cooperating with the Royal Oman Police to clarify the suitability of the car used for driving training for people with physical disabilities, following up on training and employment services, and providing devices compensatory.
With regard to the facilities provided by the private sector, discounts ranging from 10 to 50 percent are offered by communications companies, insurance companies, health institutions, restaurants, beauty and fashion salons, and others.
