Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania Al Abdullah spent a few hours on Tuesday afternoon with students at the Academy for the Blind in Tabarbour, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Education.

Students spoke to Their Majesties about projects they designed and executed at the academy’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics lab for students with visual disabilities, the first of its kind in the region.

Student projects include electric circuit design and implementation, robot design, and using chess to teach mathematics to students with visual disabilities.

In a briefing to Their Majesty, the academy’s director, Abdelmunem Dweiri, said the latest education technology is used to provide a suitable learning environment for students with visual disabilities from around the Kingdom, from first to 12th grade.

A total of 295 students—20 of whom live on the premises—are currently enrolled in the academy, which includes 34 classrooms and employs 153 staff members, 101 of them are teachers, including 55 teachers with visual disabilities, according to Dweiri.

Established in 2011 upon royal directives, the academy is the only such institution dedicated to serving students with visual disabilities. It rehabilitates students and offers psychological and healthcare services, and also prints education ministry curricula in Braille for blind students in Jordan.

During the visit, Their Majesties stopped at an exhibition of paintings by students, supervised by artist Suhail Baqaeen, who initiated the “Colour Reader” programme to teach students to use their sense of smell to identify colours and create artwork.

Education Minister Omar Razzaz, and Royal Hashemite Court Secretary General Yousef Issawi, who heads a committee to follow up on the implementation of royal initiatives, accompanied Their Majesties on the visit.