Saudi Arabia is marking the annual Purple Saturday initiative, held on the last Saturday of July, to champion people with disabilities as a vital segment of society.
As Vision 2030 anchors its goals in building a vibrant society and an ambitious nation, the Kingdom prioritizes the empowerment of people with disabilities through a number of initiatives that focus on boosting accessibility, equal opportunity, economic independence, and social inclusion.
Purple Saturday: Inclusion for All
The Big Picture: Saudi Arabia is celebrating the sixth edition of Purple Saturday – an initiative designed to promote the economic empowerment of people with disabilities.
Why It Matters: The initiative offers discounts and tailored promotions to engage people with disabilities as active consumers and highlight their significant purchasing power driving economic growth. It also raises awareness among private-sector businesses to adapt their services to the needs of people with disabilities and improve accessibility across stores, facilities, and services.
State of Play: Launched in Saudi Arabia in 2021, the Purple Saturday initiative has expanded across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with Bahrain joining in 2024 and Qatar in 2025. Oman and Kuwait joining the 2026 edition.
In the Spotlight
Between the Lines: To drive more impact and place undivided focus on disability inclusion, the Kingdom chose July to celebrate Purple Saturday as the month is quiet on international awareness days. Moreover, the purple color is the international symbol representing disability awareness, inclusion, and the economic contribution of people with disabilities worldwide.
What to Watch: The Purple Saturday initiative has achieved major milestones since its launch. The 2025 edition introduced the Purple Saturday Award and honored 15 winners across four categories: Best Commercial Presentation, Best Initiative Event, Non-Profit Sector Initiative, and Coverage of Persons with Disabilities. It saw the activation of:
- Over 220 business partners.
- Over 4,500 retail branches across 13 regions.
- Specialized customer service training programs.
The initiative also earned several awards:
- The National Dialogue Award.
- The Best Customer Experience Innovation Award.
Empowering All Saudis
The Context: Under Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia has ramped up efforts to boost the quality of life in addition to creating an ambitious nation, vibrant society, and a thriving economy. Recognizing people with disabilities as active contributors to these pillars, the Kingdom established the Authority of People with Disability (APD) in 2018 by a Cabinet decision to manage disability affairs, ensuring their rights and equal opportunity.
The Strategy
In 2023, the Kingdom introduced the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Law to regulate the affairs of people with disabilities in Saudi Arabia. The law covers five parts to ensure comprehensive rights, non-discrimination, and societal integration in alignment with Vision 2030 and international standards:
- Healthcare: gives right to comprehensive medical care, including screening, diagnosis, preventive, therapeutic, rehabilitative, and reproductive health services, while prohibiting health insurance companies from applying discriminatory barriers to care or assistive devices.
- Education: grants access to inclusive, non-discriminatory education and training across all stages, including higher education, postgraduate studies, scholarships, and early intervention, utilizing adapted curricula, assistive technologies, and tailored assessment tools.
- Employment: grants the right to work without discrimination, requiring adapted work environments, professional training programs, and incentives for public and private sector employers to recruit persons with disabilities.
- Accessibility: ensures the right to safely and easily navigate physical environments (roads, sidewalks, facilities, parking, and traffic systems) and mandates accessibility standards as a prerequisite for issuing or renewing facility licenses.
- Social and Economic Support: gives access to tailored social integration programs, facilitated lending services, equal access to banking and insurance, tax and customs exemptions on specialized tools/devices, and disability-inclusive housing project designs.
- Violations and penalty: enforces protection against abuse, neglect, exploitation, mockery, or fraud, penalizing individual offenders with up to 2 years in prison and/or fines up to SAR 500,000 (doubled for victims who are children or elderly), and non-governmental entities with fines up to SAR 500,000 (doubled for repeat violations).
Major Milestone:
The Saudi Labor Law states that employers with 25 or more employees must hire at least 4% of their total workforce from professionally qualified people with disabilities. According to Vision 2030 Annual Report, the employment rate of persons with disabilities has reached 14.7%, exceeding the 2025 target of 13.4%, driven by workplace accessibility programs and employer incentives.
Digital Accessibility
The Anchor: Saudi Arabia has launched multiple digital services and platforms to empower people with disabilities and streamline their access to various amenities.
- Tawakkalna App: offers a range of digital cards, including the Tasheelat Card, which merges different smart cards such as the boarding fee reduction card (Erkab), parking card (Mawgif), and autism card.
- HRSD Unified Mobile App: offers a diverse array of services tailored to the needs of people with disabilities by the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, including Mowaama Services, Digital Wallet Cards, and Real-Time Assistance.
- Disability Evaluation & Assessment Portal: an e-service on the HRSD portal, allowing individuals or guardians to submit medical reports, request official disability classification, and track application statuses online without branch visits.
- Visa Exemption E-Service: enables people who have a registered disability and an updated disability evaluation to apply for a letter of support to exempt visa fees.
- Financial Subsidy Management: digital portals for applying, tracking, or lodging objections regarding monthly financial assistance, education grants, as well as specialized equipment allowances.
- Digital Traffic Facility Certificates: an online service through the HRSD portal for issuing and printing digital parking permits for reserved accessible parking spaces nationwide.
- Fare Reduction Cards: applies a 50% discount on transportation fare for people with disabilities and their escort.
- Digital Inclusion Program: facilitates access to government digital services for people with disabilities across all portals.
- Digital Accessibility Tools: The Saudi National Portal (GOV.SA) and related government platforms incorporate digital accessibility tools, such as built-in screen reader support, voice navigation commands, text scaling, high-contrast modes, and remote sign-language assistance.
