“Inclusive Revolution”, a conference about work and inclusion

8 November 2020Leave a comment

We often talk about work inclusion of people with a disability, a topic that, most of all in these specific times we’re living due to the pandemic, may seem sort of utopia. But it isn’t so: even nowadays, we must commit together- organizations, businesses and workers with a disability- so that these “utopia” could turn into real for as many people as possible. On October 9^th, I had the pleasure to share my personal experience of professional with an evident physical disability during the digital conference “Inclusive Revolution“, organized by the European University of Rome partnering with companies including Alstom, Auticon, Avio Aero, Divercity, IBM, Intesa Sanpaolo, Tim, UniCredit.

The poster of the “Inclusive Revolution” conference

The “Inclusive Revolution” conference, that took place online complying with the current regulations to contrast the spread of the infection, not only represented an opportunity to think about this topic, but also to get to know best practices already applied by some businesses, as well as the point of view of those directly involved: workers with a disability. My speech aimed exactly to share my own professional experience, all in all a success case, mostly if compared with that of many others, also offering food for thoughts to the business representatives who participated in the event, about the selection process, as well as the prejudices that often negatively impact the employability, but also the career opportunities of workers with a disability, no matter how qualified they can be.

Below you can find two videos of my speech during the “Inclusive Revolution” conference. In the first one, I shared my own experience, while in the second one I answered some questions emerged during the conference.

As I always do, I wanted to offer food for thoughts aiming to achieve, all together, a different way to look at disability, that doesn’t focus on limitations anymore, but leaves room for the abilities and the specific skills and experience of people, regardless of their specific condition.

What do you think about it? Do you want to share your own experience?

Campus Party: digital, innovation and diversity

11 August 201911 August 2019Leave a comment

On July 27^th, I had the pleasure and the honor to take part as a speaker in the Job Factory organised by HRC Digital Generation during the third Italian edition of Campus Party, a global event focused on innovation and creativity and mainly addressed to young people, communities, universities, companies and organizations that, for some days, had the opportunities to discuss and build the future together, using technology as a tool to change tomorrow, in an aware and responsible way. The subject of the 2019 edition, that took place in Milan from July 24^th to 27^th, was “Diventa Div3rso” (Become Different): below, you can see one of the pictures used on social media to advertise the event.

Then, it was the best occasion to “officially” introduce Move@bility, particularly talking about di work and, therefore, social inclusion of people with a disability, wasn’t it? Here below, you can watch the video registration of my speech, that launches Movea@bility’s YouTube channel.

It was really exciting and valuable to have the chance to meet at Campus Party so many interested young people, who carefully listened to my speech and shared their views about such an important topic, that’s often overlooked even when talking about diversity. I hope I was able to spread the idea, that is also the Move@bility’s starting point: despite our respective diversities and peculiarities, we all are people and, then, have the same dignity, the same rights and, obviously, the same duties. Not only at work.

Would you like to have a look at the presentation I shared at Campus Party? Here you have it! 🙂

I hope to have further opportunities to discuss these topics with a “mixed” audience, not necessarily made up by people who are directly involved it them. Since I believe that a real “disability culture” can only be established involving the whole community, not limiting to look at our own backyard. What do you think about it?

“More Than Dis”: why don’t you put yourself on the line?

26 May 2019Leave a comment

In this space, we often talk about work and how tricky it still is, despite legal obligations, for people with a disability or included in the “protected categories“, insert in the fabric of society and succeed also under a professional perspective (with all the social, psychological and economical consequences). Then, why don’t you try to take the leap and start your own business? This is the starting point of “More Than Dis“, the contest promoted by Fondazione Italiana Accenture, founded, as its website claims, to “transfer technologies, skills and expertise from the profit environment to the non-profit, to enable the development of abilitating conceptual and digital platforms in the scenario of digital social innovation and sustainable economical development”. For this initiative, it partners with Jobmetoo, a job board exclusively dedicated to job opportunities addressed to “protected categories” workers, and with the startup incubator specialized in highly socially valuable enterprises Make a Cube. Auticon, an IT consulting business that exclusively hires people with autism spectrum disorders, and FISH (Italian Federation for Handicap Overtaking) also cooperate in this contest.

THE LAUNCH EVENT OF more than dis

All the details about how to participate in More Than Dis and the contest regulation will be communicated during its launch event that will take place in Milan, in the Community Room of Fondazione Accenture in Maurizio Quadrio street, near Garibaldi metro station, on Tuesday June 4^th from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM. The registration to the event is free of charge and can be done through this link. It will also give the opportunity to discuss and compare different perspectives about how to promote diversity and self-entrepreneursphip opportunities for people with a disability.

It sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Why don’t you take this chance and try to put yourself personally on the line, instead of keeping on waiting for others to pick you or give you an opportunity? It’s not easy, indeed. But, supported by experts who are also aware of the peculiarity associated to a condition of disability, it’s worth trying!

Stay tuned for more details about More Than Dis!

“Interno Verde”: Ferrara gardens open to everyone!

25 April 2018Leave a comment

Spring is, par excellence, the season of “rebirth”. After the long winter rest, nature reawakens, flowers blow, the naked trees cover with leaves… Would you like to enjoy this evocative show discovering the secret gardens guarded by the old town of Ferrara, furthermore without worrying about accessibility? If your answer is “yes”, “Interno Verde” is the event for you!

Thanks to this event, organized by Il Turco association, on May 12^th and 13^thmore than 60 secret gardens of Ferrara will be open to the public, who will have the chance to enjoy those secret islands, rich in suggestions and memories, through which you can read the story, the changes and the events lived by the city.

The “Interno Verde” festival, that this year reaches its third edition, pays a lot of attention to the needs of visitors with motoric limitations. On the map delivered to who registers to the event, a symbol placed next to every address will specify the accessibility degree for people with motoric issues, specifying if the location is fully accessible autonomously or you’ll need a companion to help you. However, the event staff will always be at the attendees disposal to ease their entry and visit. Furthermore, the detailed report of the spaces involved in the 2018 edition is almost completed: it will include pictures and descriptions of the festival locations, plus the nearest parking lots. Don’t you use the car and, for you, public transport is tricky? You can count on the “Muoversi” and “Giuseppina” services, provided by the Municipality of Ferrara and addressed to people with a disability aged between 18 and 65 and over-75 elderly people, respectively. For more information about how to use them and their costs, you can refer to this page.

how to register to “interno verde”?

You can register to “Interno Verde” going to the “Il Turco” association offices or at the festival infopoint or at another of the points distributed all over the city (their complete list is available here). If you live outside Ferrara, you can register online, on the festival website. All the registered people will receive a kit including: the bracelet that works also as entry pass, the map of the open gardens and the book with historycal, architectonical and botanical info about the gardens, plus unpublished photos, illustrations, ancient maps and more.

how much does it cost registering to “interno verde”?

The amount requested to register to “Interno Verde” is 10 € per person (the cost is slightly higher for online registrations, based on the amount of reserved entries), 5 € for disabled people, while their companions and children up to 13 benefit from free entry. Groups of at least 25 people can benefit a reduced cost entry at 8 € per person, that can be reserved sending an e-mail to info@internoverde.it.

Accessible tourisms: a prize for who helps them be known

22 October 201727 March 2018Leave a comment

We often talk about accessible tourisms, a trend which is (luckily) increasingly establishing, witnessing a higher awareness towards everyone’s licit need and will to travel, discovering new countries and different cultures. By the way, several initiatives (even in Italy) demonstrate that paying attention to the tourists with “special needs” isn’t just a generous act, but also a forward-looking and profitable strategy: as a matter of fact, taking into account that, limiting our talk to people with any disability, we’re talking about a quarter of the world population, not thinking about ways to adequately welcome them too means renouncing to a not exactly unimportant market share.

But, there’s often an issue on the table: transmitting correctly the message about the importance of accessible tourisms and help all the existing services, structures and initiatives be known through mass media. From this need arises an initiative promoted by the non-profit organization Diritti Diretti: the Premio Turismi Accessibili (Accessible Tourisms Prize), precisely aiming to award journalists, advertisers and communications specialists who succeed in “overtaking the barriers”, describing though radio-TV services, advertising campaigns, videos or communications campaigns entities which succeeded producing social and economic development, combining attractiveness, innovation, appearance and/or sustainability and accessibility culture.

The Accessible Tourisms Prize, which has reached its third edition, is addressed to the existing accessibility, in the various categories of tourism: culture, food & wine, sports, conventions, sea, mountains, thermal baths, education, religion. The goal is to demonstrate, through concrete examples, to entrepreneurs and institutions that serious investments in accessibility can improve a territory and its touristic and cultural offer, resulting in an advantage both for tourists and residents and- what’s not a secondary issue- with important economic effects for the enterprises operating to this end.

how to participate in the accessible tourisms prize?

To participate, you must register, filling, by May 5^th 2018, the form that’s available on the Accessible Tourisms Prize website. Among all the participants, two winners will be selected: the project which will receive more votes by the users will gain 1000 €, while the project selected by the experts’ panel will receive a plaque. For more details about the contest, please check its announcement.

PS. Move@bility runs for the award as well, with its article about “B&B Like Your Home“. You can vote for it following this link !

World Usability Day: design for inclusion

15 October 201722 March 2018Leave a comment

“User experience” is increasingly important for who works in development and design, at all levels. It is confirmed by the 2017 edition of the World Usability Day, the event that will take place, for the fourth year in a row, in Rome on November 8^th and 9^th, gathering Italian and international experts in workshops and talks. The World Usability Day was established in 2005 by the Usability Professionals ‘Association (UXPA). Since then, every year, on the second Thursday of November, all around the world there are events aiming to boost awareness towards the importance of thinking and designing taking into account, first, the main character: the user who what you’re working on is addressed to.

The subject of this edition of the World Usability Day is user experience as an inclusion promoter. The goal of design professionals, as a matter of fact, must be contributing to shape a better future, taking into consideration the specific needs of all the people, seen in their own uniqueness. In a world that changes quickly, also under a political and demographic perspective, we can’t keep on designing keeping in mind just a part of population, forgetting about the remainders.

How to reach this ambitious goal? The speakers who will alternate on the World Usability Day stage will present different perspectives and food for thought: design thinking to create technologies and products for all, services accessibility and usability, empathy as a starting point for a designing process focused on the individual.

This initiative underlines, once again, the increasing awareness towards the unavoidable need to think according to the “Design for All” logics, developing products and services suitable for the specific abilities, attitudes and needs of the users. As the insiders say, designers are often reluctant towards change. Then, it’s important to help them approaching their job using something we all, as human beings, have: empathy, that is the ability to “put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes”, feeling his needs, spirit and life as ours.

MAKEtoCARE, ideas that improve life

16 July 201723 March 2018Leave a comment

There’s an increasing number of initiatives aiming to ease the daily life of people with disability. We already talked about some of them and several apps helping to improve the quality of life of who lives with any disability. Today, I’ll talk about MAKEtoCARE, an initiative promoted by Sanofi Genzyme companioning with Maker Faire Rome, the event that, every year, recalls to our Capital city the most creative minds in Italy and abroad.

MAKEtoCARE aims to discover and support healthcare and wellness projects to improve the life of people with a disability, changing the present and contributing to create a better future.

Click4All, one of the 2016 winners, is a kit to make computer or rehabilitation aids

how to participate in maketocare?

Should you have projects or inventions aligned to the event goal, by September 15^th, you can candidate them (here, following the guidelines available on MAKEtoCARE website) to participate in the second edition (the first one took place in 2016) of the contest, which will end on November 29^th in Rome. Participating in the contest is free and open both to individuals and businesses, associations, institutions, both Italian and foreign.

dbGlove, the other 2016 winner, helps blind and deafblind people to use mobile devices

The projects must be innovative and original, able to answer still not satisfied needs, having a tangible impact on the quality of life of disabled people and being scalable and, potentially, applicable also to different areas.

Another idea from 2016: Io Kitchen, the kitchen which varies the height of countertops

An evaluation panel, headed by the dean of Rome “Tor Vergata” University, will review the projects which will have been received by the middle of September and will choose the finalist ones. The two winning projects will be awarded on November 29^th. However, all the finalist projects will have the opportunity to participate in the Maker Faire Rome (December 1^st-3^rd), next to Sanofi Genzyme, and, just for the winners, a super-award: a journey to Silicon Valley, where they will have the chance to visit fast prototyping and 3D printing companies, start-up businesses working in healthcare and wellness, web giants, fab labs, incubators and co-working spaces.

Do you have a ready prototype that, in your opinion, could really make a difference in the disabled people life? Don’t hesitate: apply now and good luck!

Connected Ability: overtaking visual disabilities

19 June 201723 March 2018Leave a comment

Do you know what a hackathon is? It’s an event (which can last for one or more days), where several experts in information technology use their skills to develop ideas and projects, often with a social utility. This is the case of Connected Ability, the hackathon organized by Microsoft Italia which, on June 27^thand 28^th, will mobilize, at the Microsoft House in Milan, developers and programmers with the goal to develop apps that can be useful to people with visual disabilities.

who can participate in connected ability?

Realized companioning with the UgiDotNet, DotNetToscana and DevMarche communities and with the patronage by the Unione Italiana Ciechi (Italian Blind People Union), Connected Ability is open, first, to who has programming skills with a language supported by Visual Studio and/or Xamarin. But also who hasn’t those technical skills can register to participate in the hackathon, if has experience to available to the work teams.

how to partecipate in connected ability?

To participate in Connected Ability, you must register filling this form. You can also enrol a work team, if you have one already, and work to an existing project or, as an alternative, develop a new one using the cues that will be shared during the days of the event. Who wants or needs it, will also have the opportunity to stay overnight at the Microsoft House, in the dedicated spaces. You’ll have the chance to work side by side with Microsoft Italia’s evangelists, sharing ideas and experience. At the end of the second day, the most valuable projects will be awarded.

Sometimes, it doesn’t take much so that a device or a software are really suitable for all, including who has a visual disability: you only have to think about it, possibly together!

Connected Ability is an important initiative, which, once again, stresses the fundamental role of technology as a facilitator for daily life of people with a disability (in this case, visual, but not just it).

Sports and disability: the call by Fondazione Vodafone

6 January 201723 March 2018Leave a comment

Benefits, under a physical, psychological and relational perspective, of playing sports even for people with a disability have been known since a long time. We’ve talked many times about how also who has a severe disability can play sport, even at competitive level, as the outcomes of Paralympic athletes show. That’s the scenario where the new initiative by Fondazione Vodafone Italia inserts itself, aiming to promote the meeting among sports and disability.

The Foundation has just launched a “call for ideas” with the goal, as we can read on its official website, to identify ideas and projects which promote a cultural shift and concretely and effectively support the spread of sports among people with physical, sensory and cognitive-relational disabilities in Italy.

which ideas and projects?

The call by Fondazione Vodafone about sports and disability is addressed to large-scale, national projects, promoting sport inclusion, through innovation and/or actions able to involve people with disability, their families, trainers, volunteers, etc. But also “smaller”, local projects, such as starting a new sport project addressed to disabled people inside an association, improving the accessibility of plants and structures, etc. For instance:

diffusion of sport culture among people with disability and their families, to promote their approach to sports;
diffusion of inclusion programmes through sports in schools and meeting places for young people;
training programmes for qualified staff (physiotherapists, technicians, trainers, coaches), to guide, follow and start the sport practice among people with disability;
playing sports with innovative and effective service and intervention models;
access to subsidies and equipment for practicing paralympic sports also through processes of materials regeneration and recycling;
developing new models, goods or serviceswhich lower the cost of actions, initiatives, interventions aiming to promote inclusion of disabled people through sports;
designing and producing innovative aids to promote sports practice from disabled people.

who can participate?

The call about sports and disability is addressed to non-profit institutions and associations, operating all over Italy, preferably with a background in activities of inclusion and Paralympic sports. The proponents must have their legal or operational residence in Italy and the project must impact on the national territory.

how to participate?

To participate in the call about sports and disability, you must read the guidelines available on the Foundation website and fill in by January 31^st 2017 the registration form, filling and attaching, when needed:

project sheet (attachment A)
“big projects” budget hypothesis (attachment B – Big projects)
“local projects” budget hypothesis (attachment B – Local projects)
privacy sheet

The selected ideas will share the 1,6 million € contribution offered by Fondazione Vodafone Italia, splitted as follows:

1,2 million € in total for Big Projects;
400 thousand € in total to co-fund Local Projects, provided that each of them collects at least 50% of its financial needs through crowdfunding, carried out under the supervision and with the support, the tools and the brokerage of technological companions made available for free by Fondazione Vodafone.

Are you ready to participate?

World Disability Day 2016

20 November 201623 March 2018Leave a comment

On December 3^rd, we’ll celebrate the World Disability Day 2016, established by the UN in 1992 to keep the focus on the rights and requests by people with a disability, who, today, represent over one fifth of the world population. This year’ edition, by the way, coincides with the 10th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, so it will be the chance to take stock of the situation: how has the disabled people condition changed, under a social, civil, educational, work, medical and political perspective?

This World Disability Day will focus on reaching the “17 Goals for the Future We Want”, that follow the sustainable development goals, launched and promoted by the UN, considered from the perspective of people who live with a disability:

1. Fighting against poverty
2. Fighting against hunger
3. Promoting health and wellness for everyone at every age
4. Access to a quality education
5. Gender equality through women and girl emancipation
6. Clean water and availability of hygienical-sanitary services
7. Renewable and accessible energy
8. Promoting employment and an inclusive, sustained and sustainable economical growth for everyone
9. Promoting innovation and infrastructures
10. Reducing inequality inside and among countries
11. Promoting sustainable cities and communities
12. Responsible usage of resources
13. Fighting climate change
14. Sustainable usage of the sea
15. Sustainable usage of the earth
16. Promoting Peace and justice
17. Companionship for sustainable development

Ambitious, but fundamental goals, for everyone and, particularly, for people who, due to diseases or age, live with any disability and still, too often, are, as a matter of fact, excluded from the community, even in countries that would, in theory, be more advanced under this perspective, victims of bias and multiple barriers.

For the World Disabled People Day, all over the world, including Italy, there will be many scheduled events, workshops, conferences, other initiatives to remind everyone that disability is an essential part of the world we live in and, therefore, who has it must be protected and “included”.

Move@bility

Idee per un mondo a misura di tutti

Tag: events