Omar Abdelaziz Abdelati al-Obeidi

Omar Abdelaziz Abdelati al-Obeidi:
I have been blind since eye cancer took my sight when I was two years old. When I was nine years old, I intended to invent the world’s first car for the blind. (I have not realized that ambition yet, but I have not forgotten it.)

I have always believed that a blind person can function as well as a person with sight because his brain is as good as anyone else’s. But that view is not held by many in the Arab world, including the blind themselves. I graduated from high school at the top of my class in 1992 but was denied entrance into university because of my disability. This led me to go abroad for six years to study.

I have owned and operated several small businesses.

Now as director of Vision Center in Libya, I’m engaged in the business of training and providing computers and other resources to people with vision disabilities. Vision Center has achieved a number of things already, such as starting the first computer laboratory in Gaza and the first online library for the blind in the Arab world. This library is located in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. It enables the blind to read thousands of books, which were unavailable to them in the past. In 2009, Vision Center opened the first Internet café for people with impaired sight. We’re planning to open a second café in Tripoli in 2010. I am also on the board of directors of a foundation that supports a business incubator for the disabled. At present, I am seeking financing for a business project that was fostered by the incubator. I have been looking for a loan of $160,000 for ten months now.

Thomas Panek

Thomas Panek:
I am proud to learn of your Internet cafés that cater to the blind in Libya, Omar. Your experiences are not only the very definition of entrepreneurship, you are a “social entrepreneur,” creating social value through the improvement of goods and services offered to the community.

When it comes to businesses and blindness, the Arab world and the United States are not that far apart.

As a businessman, like you, I have worked in many countries, including the UAE, changing perceptions about the capabilities of the blind, but we have most of our work yet to do. My last trip to Dubai, my white cane was confiscated at the airport for lack of understanding. Recently, in Washington, I was prohibited from entering a business because of my Seeing Eye Dog. In the U.S., seven of ten working-age Americans who are blind are not employed.

Many Americans who are blind are gaining independence by joining the National Industries for the Blind (NIB), whose mission is to enhance opportunities for the blind by creating jobs. NIB is part of the AbilityOne Program, which helps more than 45,000 blind or disabled people find employment. The program coordinates with nonprofitts to provide goods and services to the federal government at fair-market prices.

Finally, it is not too late to realize your childhood dream to invent the world’s first production car for the blind…but you better hurry! Earlier this year, a university here, Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, created a vehicle that can be driven by blind people.

You and I are a world apart, but we both have courage gained from business experiences. Keep the ambitions you had when you were a child and apply them to your new venture.