The experience of the Council for People in Difficulty: a small step on European projects, a big step for a world without barriers
Against all barriers
Breaking down barriers: the entire mission of the European Union could be summed up in these few words. Barriers to trade and transit of people, barriers in accessing infrastructure and enjoying their rights, barriers that hinder the development of local organisations and people.
Despite progress in many areas, these are barriers that people with disabilities still face every day: in access to health care, education, employment, recreation, and participation in social and political life.
Statistics say that disability, in its various forms, affects about 87 million people, or one in five Europeans. But this is not really the case: it is a phenomenon that affects everyone, more or less directly. As the population ages, temporary or permanent conditions that limit independence increase. Inclusion is increasingly a universal social priority, and accessibility a condition that enables everyone to participate fully in public, working and cultural life.
Dedicated to this great goal are the European Strategy for People with Disabilities, the European AccessibleEU platform, and-most importantly-the work of so many people and organizations.
We talked about it recently, developing 10 video pills in collaboration with “Rivincite,” a European project that collected and disseminated beautiful stories of inclusive sports. And we made it our own by optimizing the Guide’s platform for maximum accessibility.
We talk about it again today by presenting the work and experience of the Council for People in Difficulty (CPD): an organization with a vision, with lots of projects, and with 37 years of experience working alongside people with disabilities — and more.
We turn the floor over to Giovanni Ferrero, director of CPD, and Erica Lecce, coordinator of one of its most important projects, the Disability Agenda.
John, Erica: What is at the heart of CPD’s work?
Our starting point is very simple: every person is a citizen, a student, a worker, a traveler, an artist, a sportsman, a tourist, and much more. He is many things at once. Every person with a disability is all these things, even before he or she is a person with a disability.
At the heart of our work is this concept and the desire to spread it, to create the conditions for every person to actively participate in the different spheres of life and society. If we had to choose a watchword for our mission, it would be “participation,” even before “inclusion” or “disability.”
Every step and every barrier (not just physical) limits the enjoyment and participation of everyone, not just people with disabilities. Streets, stores, museums, offices, schools, public services, websites or any other element of daily life, when made accessible, become so For All. “For All” . The motto “For All” accompanies anyone working in our industry today.
“For All”: what is the connection between this motto and the history of CPD?
This motto did not always exist; CPD’s work helped create it, spread it, and implement it with projects.
The Council for People in Difficulty was born in 1988. In those years, the debate on these issues was particularly heated: thanks to this debate, and also thanks to the work of the CPD, Law 92/104, the first in Italy to recognize the right to full social integration of people with disabilities, and later Law 99/68, specifically dedicated to their job placement, were born.
CPD played an active role in this debate, in creating this change. And following up, in overseeing that rights were guaranteed, in creating new solutions for this to happen, and in promoting cultural change beyond the law. On all this there was-and still is-work to be done. Even today in our city, in Turin, 80 percent of businesses have a step, and it is not the worst. As we have already said, every step is more than a step: cultural barriers can be even more disabling than physical ones. In most cases they are the result of indifference or laziness rather than a true physical constraint. Removing them would often cost nothing, and help create cities where anyone can feel at home.
Advocacy, cultural change, concrete action: what are you involved in today?
Our focus is always: advocacy; training and outreach; and testing new services for inclusion. We work on inclusion with regard to both disability and other situations of social, economic or relational fragility: accompanying people with walking difficulties with equipped vehicles (a very concrete way to overcome barriers); food support to families in difficulty (we assist more than 500, as part of the Torino Solidale network); we run a social-assistance desk, one to combat loneliness and one to combat discrimination, the Banco del Sorriso (to collect and distribute basic necessities for early childhood, in collaboration with Fondazione ULAOP-CRT), training activities in schools and for teachers on disability issues, and also a Master’s degree in Disability Management.
All these projects would be impossible without partnership work. Some of our most important projects arise precisely to promote networking. We have Disability in Network, a platform that brings together 350 associations in Piedmont to systematize their disability efforts, providing a collection point for proposals, services, data and analysis documents.
And then we have the Disability Agenda, which was created and has always been supported by collaboration with Fondazione CRT. It is a platform that brings together more than 500 for-profit and nonprofit entities throughout Italy. It is built around six strategic goals, which concretely express our commitment to “leave no one behind“: social housing, supporting families, living the local organisations, working to grow, learning in and out of school, healing and care.
It has its own projects, a collection of best practices and testimonies, and a collection of information sources on disability.
For us, this is a particularly significant project, both because of its national scale and because it allows us to talk and act on disability together with the private sector, public agencies, and the entire citizenry.
The Disability Agenda is a large partnership on a national scale. How did your engagement on European projects come about instead?
European projects, and more generally action at the European level, have been a natural accompaniment to our activities over the years. We are not, so to speak, European project specialists, nor an organization that chases European calls for proposals at any cost. We have maintained over the years an always attentive but cautious and realistic approach to European projects.
We began working in this area in 2006, at the Paralympic Winter Games in Turin. The Games were a great and beautiful opportunity to bring people closer to the issue of disability. Sport was the first example that entered the homes of all Italians (and others) to show that people with disabilities can be great athletes, even before they are people with disabilities.
Also in 2006, CPD’s commitment to accessible tourism is developed. Why is it important? Because it involves: working on accessible tourism involves engaging in accessible building, welcoming strategies, training of commercial, public, tourism and museum operators, and raising awareness among volunteers and citizens. The first tourist in any city and those who live there: they are the first to see the changes, including in terms of accessibility
.This engagement of ours in the tourism sector started a very important dynamic of collaboration with the business world, which continues to this day. In fact, working on accessibility and usability is also an entrepreneurial opportunity: it opens its services to new – and growing – audiences and markets, and allows for the development of new ones.
Again, this commitment led to the birth of Turismabile: a platform that promotes accessible tourism as the foundational basis of tourism offerings, hospitality and the enhancement of tourism and cultural heritage, throughout the local organisations of Piedmont.
It is from this moment on that the first fruits of this commitment at the European level begin to be seen: in 2008 ENAT, the European Accessible Tourism Network, a point of reference for those working in the sector… and also for creating partnerships for European projects, was born.
It has been a long road. What was your first European project?
Exactly: it was a long road, but as you can see it was a road that bore fruit just as it was being traveled, without haste. Beyond what later materialized in European projects.
The first and most important European project we carried out was STRING, which stands for “Smart Tourist Routes for Inclusive Groups.” The project was part of a DG Enterprise call specifically aimed at designing, implementing and promoting accessible tourist routes. The opportunity built on a pilot initiative of the European Alliance of Historic and Accessible Cities(LHAC), which had already begun developing accessible tourist routes in six historic European cities, including Turin. The STRING project stepped in to promote them and to exploit their opportunities in tourism and economic terms. This is also why the project was not a fluke, but was the result of a road we were already on.
Precisely because of this, even though it was our first project, we were its coordinators. The partnership was broad (12 partners from 7 countries) and varied: regional institutions, organizations like ours, tour operators and foundations. Fondazione CRT and the European Association of Foundations (now called Philea) gave us a big hand in structuring the partnership and implementing the project.
This partnership has enabled us to create one of our most original products, the “STRING Boxes“: customizable gift boxes (or “gift cards”) with accessible itineraries in three European regions (Piedmont, Avila in Spain, and Sozopol in Bulgaria) and in three major thematic strands (art and culture, nature and outdoors, and food and wine).
It was an important step in promoting accessible tourism and involving the private sector: the STRING Boxes were sold by tour operators and involved numerous tourist and commercial establishments with special agreements.
The project did not stop there: from this experience, local (such as Langhe4All) and regional (such as Piemonte4All) accessible tourism catalogs were born.
We then developed a few other projects, mainly as partners, not only in Italy.
Can you tell us another one that has been significant for you?
As I said, we are cautious about approaching European projects, because we are engaged in many areas and we are not (or are not yet) specialists in European projects. However, when our activity takes us in that direction, the experience is always enriching. I give another example, very recently.
One of the tools we use most frequently is games. As part of our educational activities and with children, we have created games of all kinds. Our mascot is the cricket Cipidillo, who accompanies us in many of our initiatives [Editor’s note: you can see him in the photo accompanying this article]. We enjoy playing games, experimenting with new media and new technologies.
So we created The City of Disability Agenda, an initiative dedicated to bringing multi-sensory play experiences for all around fairs and large events to raise awareness of disability issues among children, youth and adults.
The City of Disability Agenda has landed in various settings, such as at the Torino Comics fair, in a dedicated area. It provides for various games, or experiences: Space Ability, a card game in which an intergalactic congregation must organize accessible and fun activities for all the aliens who are part of it, regardless of their characteristics; a Tactile and Olfactory Memory, which refines interaction strategies typical of people with sensory disabilities; (Don’t) Hear Who’s Talking, a game that teaches how to communicate without using hearing; and a complex Experiential Obstacle Course, with wheelchairs, white canes and bandages, to understand through play the meaning of “barrier.”
One of the new experiences of the City of Disability Agenda is called City4All, is much more “technological” than what we had done so far and was developed through a European project, which ended in April.
The European project is called TrialsNet, was funded by the Horizon program and promoted real-world, replicable experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of 5G and 6G networks in enabling services with high social and industrial impact. It provided an opportunity for organizations such as CPD to test complex digital solutions with European funds, with fast timeframes and an application approach. City4All was in fact a “sub-project” under TrialsNet. It enabled CPD to develop a virtual reality game and disseminate it, through its work in schools and with the City of Disability Agenda.
City4All is a game designed together with people with motor and sensory disabilities to simulate the main critical issues they face in experiencing the city, and the solutions needed to overcome them. It presents three immersive experiences, each designed to reproduce the challenges faced by people with specific disabilities: blindness, deafness, and motor difficulties.
Again, we came to the project after a long journey of “our own” activities, which opened us up to new ideas and new relationships. Working with the other two partners in the project, Eurix and WindTre, who have a completely different history and experience from ours, has in turn opened up a new world for us. The world of technology can be our ally, and we have begun to explore it in earnest through a European project.
A good experience. In general, what have you learned from European projects?
Our goal in participating in European projects has always been primarily one: to learn from the experience of others, to be open to new approaches and orientations, and to create partnerships that can continue in our everyday work. A goal that has always been fully achieved.
We have not yet been able to structure ourselves to work on European projects in a systematic way, but we have realized that this is very important in order to be able to carry out their activities on an ongoing basis, to value the effort they require, and to make the most of them.
We have also made mistakes, and learned from mistakes: for example, we had problems on one project because of eligibility issues of one of the partners. We are driven by our passion for our activity, but to really launch into the world of European projects, it is very important to integrate a technical eye into your organization that knows how to assess the formal and organizational details.
By the way, the disability sector is not an “easy” sector from the point of view of European projects: there is no dedicated program, but there are cross-cutting lines in various programs. You have to be able to look in many directions and be ready.
Now the world of European projects has changed, offering new opportunities and new tools. It is easier to stay informed about opportunities, network and find reliable partners. We have probably also changed: we have grown up, partly because of the projects we have already implemented, we know what to expect and how to move forward. We can work on it more, and more than we have done so far.
What are your plans for the future?
We see a great opportunity in European projects: the Disability Agenda and our activities on accessible tourism have developed, I would say almost by force, or destiny, into European projects. Therefore, it may be time for us to engage in European projects more actively and consciously.
We have a network of partners who are, too, increasingly active on European projects. We are developing our activity in areas, such as new technologies, that lend themselves effectively to developing European projects. We have found that we are complementary to technology companies: they are technically very are strong, but we can provide expertise and content that they lack. In this we see a great opportunity: it allows us to focus on what we are really strong in, together with other really strong partners in other areas.
And we’re going to have a big event coming up that will allow us to gather ideas and contacts, to develop relationships, to talk to colleagues from all over the world: the World Summit on Accessible Tourism, the world convention on accessible tourism, which will be held in Turin, Italy, October 5-7.
We are organizing it with other partners and supporters: it is very challenging, but a great growth experience for all of us, and for our city: a city that is already the European Capital of Innovation and Smart Tourism 2025.
It will also be an opportunity to see old friends again, the very ones with whom we have moved our steps on European projects: such as Philea and Fundación ONCE, which now runs the European AccessibleEU platform.
You are all sent: don’t miss it!
