Hayat Nazar

Hayat Khalil Hassan Nazar Heji is a consultant at Al Noor Centre for the Blind and its former director, with postgraduate expertise in education and educational leadership.

She was born into a stable, traditional Qatari family with two brothers and six sisters. Her childhood in Doha followed an ordinary course until she entered primary school in the state education system.

At eleven, a sudden retinal detachment caused her to lose her sight. Accepting the change was initially difficult, but faith in God’s will and the constant support of her family helped her adapt. Because she had spent her first ten years sighted, she retained skills and concepts that later helped her learn new ways of studying and navigating daily life.

No specialist centre for pupils with visual impairments was then available, so she continued in mainstream education at Zubaida Primary School, Al-Andalus Preparatory School and Rabaa Secondary School. Her brothers recorded textbooks on cassette, while teachers gave sustained assistance. For examinations, the Ministry of Education arranged a reader to present each question and a writer to record the answers she dictated.

In 1994, she graduated from the French literary stream among Qatar’s ten highest-performing secondary pupils and became the first blind student to enter Qatar University. Her family arranged assistance between lectures, and she recorded teaching sessions for review at home. Through coordination between her father and the Qatar Society for People with Special Needs, a teacher introduced her to Braille. Within two months, she had learnt Arabic and English Braille, mathematical notation and abbreviations, enabling her to complete a degree in Arabic between 1994 and 1998.

University study required a much wider range of references. Her father worked with the Qatar Society for the Rehabilitation of People with Special Needs and organisations abroad to obtain the Qur’an, Arabic-language works, literature and dictionaries in Braille. Those books formed the foundation of her private Braille library.

After graduating in 1998, she joined Al Noor Centre for the Blind as an Arabic teacher for two years. She encouraged blind people to use the centre, taught Braille to members and parents, trained incoming teaching staff and shared the practical knowledge she had gained. Because primary-level resources were scarce, she also wrote an Arabic textbook for Year One pupils and completed further training in special education.

Congratulations from Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser at her Qatar University graduation strengthened her resolve to pursue postgraduate study. After two years at the centre, she received a scholarship to the United States, studied English for eight months and passed the required examinations. Saint Joseph’s University awarded her a master’s degree with distinction in primary and special education in 2003. Approval from the Ministry of Education allowed her to proceed directly to a doctorate in educational leadership, which she completed with distinction at the same university in Philadelphia in 2007.

On returning to Qatar, she served as Director-General of Al Noor Centre for the Blind from 2007 to 2014. Drawing on her education and lived experience, she developed programmes and teaching methods for people with visual impairments, spoke at conferences and lectures and served on committees concerned with laws and services for people with disabilities. In 2014, she became a consultant at the centre.

Modern technology widened the tools available to blind and visually impaired users. Braille systems could convert printed text into Braille and back again, while screen readers rendered text as speech on phones and tablets. She followed these developments closely and joined both the Innovation Club and the Arab Experts Group in ICT Accessibility at Mada Assistive Technology Center.

Loss of sight remained the greatest initial challenge, followed by movement around university campuses in Qatar and the United States. Her brother accompanied her abroad, and Braille versions of some references remained difficult to obtain during her master’s and doctoral studies. Technology gradually removed many of those barriers.

Her recognition includes selection in 2023 as a leading Gulf figure in social work by the GCC Committee of Ministers of Social Affairs and Development; Qatar Foundation’s Excellence in Research Award in 2014; the Qatar Businesswomen Award for Professionals in 2011 from the Qatari Businesswomen Association; Qatar University’s Distinguished Young Graduate Award in 2007; and an International Women’s Day honour in 2005 from the Supreme Council for Family Affairs under the theme ‘Women: Will and Ambition’.