Mohamed Shaqqur

Mohamed was born in Sha’ab village and now resides in Jaffa. When Mohamed was born he was diagnosed with retinitis igmentosa, a genetic disorder which causes loss of vision. While Mohamed was able to see in his youth, nowadays he can’t see almost entirely.

However, his family never saw visual impairment as a disability and he was raised and educated the same as the rest of his brothers. He has a bachelor’s degree in land of Israel studies and was trained as a medical masseur in the Wingate Institute.

Mohamed joined Na Laga’at in 2011 as a waiter in the dark restaurant Blackout and as a workshop guide. Since 2016 he works as the center’s accessibility manager, and helps develop workshops for adults and children alike.

He says that one of the things that moved him the most when he joined Na Laga’at was meeting people diagnosed with Usher syndrome.

He says that the meeting summarized the uniqueness of his work in the center. The meeting led to the creation of a workshop called “Using our senses” which he presents with Mordy Weis, a deaf-blind actor.

In his work as an accessibility manager, Mohamed makes various events accessible, both in and out of the center.

Those events include the Na Laga’at festival, soccer games and a project in the Tel Aviv museum to make art accessible for visually impaired people. Mohamed strives and works to make accessibility a social tool that everyone is able to enjoy.