The State of Qatar ensures a special attention and care for people with disabilities. This is demonstrated since the early seventies, when the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs established the Social Welfare Department, also, the Ministry of Education opened its first classroom for students having auditory disabilities. This attention and care developed significantly in the eighties through establishing auditory/oral schools and in the nineties through founding centers and institutions serving people with disabilities, in particular the Shafallah Center.
As a vital effort to provide attention and care for the Qatari family and for people with disabilities, the state of Qatar established the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, which strives to protect their rights in different legislation, in particular through the issuance of the law on special needs No. 2 of the year 2004. In addition, the State of Qatar signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007.
The objective of the study is to provide comprehensive and accurate information about people with disabilities in the State of Qatar, and determine their characteristics. In particular, providing information about disability rate, types, causes, and severity of disabilities, in addition to the social and economic characteristics of disabled people.
The study carried out a field survey in two stages, a preparatory stage with aim to provide statistics about the disabled population. A second stage where a the disabled questioner was applied on those who were identified in the first stage, which began in March of 2007.
