Tag: children

“Ciak si aggira”: bypassing architectonical barriers is a game

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We all know how many architectonical barriers who lives with a disability, but also who goes around our cities with little children or bulky luggage, has to face on a daily basis. Many of these barriers arise from disregard or carelessness (for instance, cars parked in front of ramps which enable people on a wheelchair to access a sidewalk). How to raise the awareness of the community, and, hence, of the (local and national) administrations towards the need to project spaces that are really “accessible”? An effective way can be, for instance, starting from the children, getting them used to this mindset through a game. This is the starting point of “Ciak si aggira“, a board game for children from 6 years old created by Ermio De Luca, an engineer with a disability, who, as a consequence, directly knows this issue.

Ciak si aggira

the plot

The “Ciak si aggira” characters are six children: Fabio, Giorgio, Mauro, Adele, Fanny and Marta, plus the “guest star” Isotta, the wheelchair Fabio uses to move around. The six friends live together a lot of adventures and enjoy moving around the city, to discover new places: will they be able to do it without having architectonical barriers to rain on their parade?

Ciak si aggira - the six friends and Isotta

how does “ciak si aggira” work?

The principle “Ciak si aggira” is based on is the same as the well-known game of the goose:  the players, using pieces, must move along the path designed on the board, recognizing and, precisely, bypassing the architectonical barriers they bump into, also getting to know the effects that those obstacles have on the mobility of people using a wheelchair or walking sticks to move.

The game is issed by La Macina Onlus, costs € 19.50 and can be requested sending an e-mail to  emailtowork@libero.it. If you’re looking for a gift idea that is funny, but also useful and smart for your children, you’ve found it!

Amsterdam: eco-friendly, transgressive…and accessible!

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Let’s continue our imaginary tour of accessible Europe stopping at Amsterdam, the Netherlands’ capital city. Culturally lively, eco-friendly (just think about the huge number of bicycles you can see on the streets) and transgressive (try asking your friends the first things they link to the city… apart from tulips and Dutch clogs!), as many Northern Europe capitals, Amsterdam is certainly cutting-edge about accessibility, for people with movement issues or “special” needs (don’t be naughty, please!).

Dutch clogs - Amsterdam

Reaching Amsterdam from Italy is easy: by airplane, in a few hours, you can get to Schipol airport, enormous but absolutely suitable for all passengers, for its accessibility. To reach the city, you can use the intercity train connecting the airport to the center of Amsterdam, better booking in advance the assistance you need, since, to get on board, you must overtake three steps: you’d have the chance to request it also directly there, but be prepared to wait… for hours! Instead, if you choose a slower train, Sprinter, you can do without assistance, since the entrance is at the platform level.

Amsterdam

Once you arrive in Amsterdam, you can breathe a sigh of relief: even though the streets are paved with small bricks, the city is suitable for people with reduced mobility, thanks to ramps facilitating going up and down the sidewalks and not so many circulating cars (in compensation, as I said earlier, there’s a lot of bicycles, but also cycle paths). Public transport is generally accessible as well: the subway network has elevators and trains at the same level as the platforms; the new trams have accessible entrances and, for any event, platforms can be pulled out by the drivers. Instead, not all the buses, so far, are accessible, but many of them have platforms that can be pulled out to allow access also to travellers on wheelchairs. But Amsterdam is a “water city”, so it would be a pity not to take a tour on one of its boats, all fully accessible. And there’s even more: if you want to take a bicycle tour, you can do it even if you use a wheelchair, renting one of the special bicycles. To plan your city tour as better as you can, you can check the local city transport company website (it’s available also in English).

Amsterdam

The most comfortable (and convenient) way to visit Amsterdam as a tourist is the Amsterdam Card, that you can request also online and allows you to freely take public transport, but also access the most important attractions and museums in the city (in many cases, tourists with disability and their companions, but also children, can benefit from discounts). Most of the museums and of the most craved touristic destinations are accessible: from the Van Gogh Museum to Anna Frank’s home (at least in the renovated part) to the Heineken Experience, you’ll have the chance to access everywhere without too many issues. And the same is valid for most of the city restaurants and public places (here you can find detailed info about the accessibility of museums, transport and public places of the most important Dutch cities).

You just have to leave: enjoy your holiday!

PS. Have you been there and would like to share info with the other Move@bility users? You’re welcome!

Theatre-therapy, to get to know and express yourself

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Theatre has always been seen as a sort of “purifying ritual” (not for nothing, Aristoteles used to say that the theatre goal was, precisely, catharsis), a form of psychotherapy, meant as an expression of human soul, with all of its shades and contradictions. The theatre-therapy arises from this perspective: a path of cure and personal growth based on a “mise-en-scene” of your own past through improvisation performance, combining acting (first, the famous Stanislavskij method) and psychology (from Winnicott to Freud and Jung).

Theatre-therapy

Theatre-therapy can be used almost for everybody, from children to elderly people, including people with psychic disabilities. Of course, the therapy’ goals change based on its addressees: with children, the focus in mostly on an educational perspective, while, when it comes to disabled people, the goal is rehabilitation. But, generally, the main goal of this technique is harmonizing the relationship among body, voice and mind, in the relationship with other, yourself and your own creativity. How does it work, concretely?

Theatre-therapy children

Guided by a theatre-therapist, a specialized psychologist and actor who has attended a specific three-year course, people are helped to express their past, gradually overtaking any block to harmonize with themselves and with the others and socialize, using body, voice and mime. In case of neurotic or borderline people, the therapist’ task is to help them developing their adult self. Throughout the sessions of the theatre-therapy path, people get to know themselves and the others, face their own fears and weaknesses, become aware of their own limits, learning not to judge themselves nor the others, accepting themselves and the others just the way they are. That’s possible also thanks to improvisation, that enables to express in a freer way their own past, protected by “pretending” to be someone else.

theatre-therapy with disabled people

Theatre-therapy paths are wide spreading more and more, all around Italy. If you want to stay up-to-date about all the activities, please visit the FIT (Italian Theatre-Therapy Federation) website. Are you ready to go on stage?

 

Accessible fun for everyone!

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Merry-go-rounds and roller-coasters are fine, aren’t they? These attractions aren’t appreciated just by children: even those (like us) who are “over 10” love and dream about them! So, why would we have to do without them?

Now, the most important amusement parks, in Italy and abroad, offer a wide range of attractions (that are usually marked with some symbols indicating their level of difficulty and, therefore, accessibility) and services to enable all their visitors fully enjoying the experience: from the littlest children to the adults, including motoric and sensory disabled people.

  • Let’s start from the most famous amusement park in Europe, Disneyland Paris, truly offers a tailor-made fun for everyone and dedicated facilitations on the tickets price you can benefit from simply showing the Priority Card that’s distributed to those who show an invalidity certificate or a medical certification, or the Facility Card, reserved to those who have a temporary disability (for instance, due to an accident) and pregnant women, always provided that they present the medical document certifying that they can use the attractions without risks. For deaf people, for instance, some attractions have a magnetic induction amplifying system. For motoric or visually disabled people and their companions (including helping animals, if needed), some attractions have dedicated accesses. Usually, the park doesn’t provide for particular discounts on the tickets price for disabled visitors, but it’s always advisable to verify any specific initiative calling 02/75419755.
  • Coming back into the Italian borders, Gardaland offers assisted entry cards (for disabled and elderly people and pregnant women, with procedures that are very similar to those applied by Disneyland Paris) and dedicated prices for tickets addressed disabled visitors and their companions: not self-sufficient disabled people have right to a free entry ticket, while their helpers can enter buying a reduced cost ticket; autonomous disabled people, instead, can access the park buying a 33 € ticket (of course, showing all the appropriate documents). Furthermore, Gardaland has also dedicated accesses and services and signage for physical and sensory disabled people, both at the attractions and in the areas reserved to performances, at the restaurants and shops inside the park. Furthermore, this year Gardaland offers a brand new service: Easy Rider, to guide groups including people with a disability inside the park, helping them to choose the most suitable attractions and to plan their day. To fully enjoy the fun, I recommend downloading the guide from the park website, planning in advance your itinerary and arriving in advance, so that you can retire the card and benefit from all the dedicated services. Do you have any particular need? You can directly get in touch with the park using the contacts specified on its website.
  • The service level offered by Mirabilandia is very similar, both in terms of pricing and services. The park in Ravenna pays particular attention to families with children, that can benefit from an ad hoc package, and to “senior” visitors, who have right to a special price ticket. For not self-sufficient disabled people (and for children whose height is below 1 meter), the entrance is free, while their companions can benefit from a reduced price ticket. For more info or specific needs, it’s possible to contact the park management office using the form available online.
  • Similar conditions are offered by Rainbow Magicland as well. The amusement park near Rome has both attractions with different difficulty and accessibility levels and pricing policies dedicated to specific categories of visitors: free entrance for children below 1 meter of height and not self-sufficient disabled people; reduced price entrance, instead, for children until 14 years old, pregnant women, over 65 and autonomous disabled people (in these cases, the ticket must be bought directly at the park ticket office). Furthermore, there are special price packages for groups, schools and families.
  • Finally, Etnaland, the park near Catania, offers free entrance to children below 1 meter of height and dedicated discounts for those below 140 centimetres of height. For people whose disability is higher than 75% and their companions, the entrance ticket costs €15, both for the Themepark and the Aquapark.

Are you ready to launch yourself in one day (or more!) full of fun and adventure?

accessible fun - amusement park

Taking a plane? Mission: possible!

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We’ve already talked about the services enabling everybody to travel without concerns by train. What if we’d choose a more distant destination, reachable by plane?

No problem with that too! Whether you travel alone or with someone else (if he/she is an healthy adult, he/she could also be your companion), in Italy ora abroad, now every airline offer the assistance services for disabled and/or elderly people, families with children, children travelling alone, etc. Here we’ll just talk about the so-called “special assistance”, the service addressed to disabled (both physical or sensory, temporary – for instance, due to an accident or a surgery- or permanent) and elderly people.

How to request for it? Procedures vary depending on the airline: by phone, on their website using the available chat service after having booked the flight, flagging the appropriate box during the booking process, etc. Anyway, the service is always 100% free. Then, why don’t we benefit from it?

There are a lot of airlines, so I’ll avoid “hidden advertising”: you can find all the info directly on the website of the airline you’ll choose to fly with.

In this post, I’ll simply give you advices to request the service, thanks to about 4 years of direct experience, since I’m a frequent flyer, both for business or leisure reasons.

plane

  1. Think about it in advance! In case of emergency- and if the flight you want to take isn’t full- the assistance service can be requested even during the check-in, but all the airlines suggest requesting it at least 48 hours before the departure, following the procedures specified on their websites. Furthermore, if you have recently had a surgery or suffer from a disease that could be not totally compatible with flying, make sure to bring with you, at the airport, the MEDIF (Healthcare Information Form for Flights), which must be filled by your general practitioner not earlier than 7 days before the flight. In this document, the doctor, specifying the disease the traveller suffers from and expressing a positive or negative opinion about the opportunity to fly, relieves the flight staff and the airline from any responsibility, should there be issues depending on the disease itself during the flight. Then, if you’re planning your summer holidays, get organized in advance!
  2. The day of the departure, arrive at the airport at least 90 minutes before the take off time: this way, the staff will be able to guarantee the assistance you’ve requested, both inside the airport and on the airplane (if needed).
  3. Are you changing your reservation, maybe because you decided to stay for a longer time in the place you’re visiting or, due to any other reason, you need to leave back in advance? Remember to contact the assistance service, to make sure they’re aware of the change and avoid unpleasant surprises…
  4. Do you use a wheelchair, crutches or other aids and/or device (e.g. oxygen)? Communicate it while requesting the assistance, so that the staff is ready to fully assist you.
  5. Do you need a guide dog or any other animal acting as an emotional support? Relax: it will have the chance to travel with you on board (you won’t need to buy an additional ticket for it and there won’t be weight limits), provided that you’ve communicated it to the airline in advance (should the animal be an emotional support, you’ll need to get a certificate from the specialised doctor explaining why you need it) and you make sure the animal won’t bother the other passengers or the staff during the flight.
  6. Will you need to take medicines during the flight? Even in this case, you’ll have the opportunity to take with you the amount you’ll need during the journey, presenting at the safety checks a medical certificate released not earlier than 30 days before the departure, clearly specifying their amounts and consumption ways. Should you need needles (which are normally forbidden on board), you’ll have to communicate it to the staff before taking off.

Remember that, based on your needs and the airplane model, airlines have limits to the number of “special assistance” passengers admitted on a single flight: it’s not because they’re evil or insensitive, since it’s just a way to provide the passengers with a service level suitable for their own needs. On the airplane, usually there are seats reserved to these passengers (who, for safety reasons, cannot seat, for instance, near the fire exits), whose amount varies depending on the airplane size. Then, here you have another – very good- reason not to wait ‘til the last minute!

Do you need more info? Refer to the ENAC website or to the airline you’re flying with!