On 1, 2 and 3 October in Rome the Disability Pride will take place: three days dedicated to conferences, meetings and shows that aim to re-discuss disability and promote diversity.
What is Disability Pride?
Participation, inclusion, visibility, are the keywords and goals supported by the Disability Pride Network (DPN), a national and international network in continuous expansion, which intends to promote and affirm a new way of living, thinking and enhancing disability.
It is indeed true that unity is strength! For this reason the Disability Pride Network involves different actors, and deploys people with disabilities, together with their families, friends, associations and citizens who will need a reference for people who live with disability without significant support.
The Disability Pride around the world
Unfortunately postponed last year due to the restrictions on Covid-19, the origins of the initiative, now widespread with an annual fixed appointment, are American.
The first Disability Pride Parade was held in 1990 in Boston, shortly after the signing of the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and today it represents a real mouthpiece of rights, which promotes accessibility and inclusion.
How it was born in Italy
The Italian Network, which is a real permanent presidium, was conceived by Carmelo Comisi who is also the current president, and it works constantly to embrace every reality that experiences disability free from pietism, but which rather intends to enhance and promote it.
The Disability Pride arrived in Italy in 2015, initially with the name of “Handy Pride”, with the conformation of a traveling event among Italian cities where various shows were interspersed with the reading of some UN-convention articles on people with disabilities’ rights.
Since 2018, the Onlus Disability Pride is the tool with which all the events that have animated the path of Disability Pride have been presented to the institutions.
Goals and challenges
As stated in its Statute, the Disability Pride Network aims to change the way people think and define disability. It intends to promote the pride of diversity, which can no longer be experienced as a shame, and promotes a path of integration.
The challenges are several, but they aim to attract more and more attention to this issue, with the aim of ‘normalizing’ it.
Today even more, new technologies allow us to understand that disability is only the result of the relationship with the surrounding environment and the interfaces that characterize it.
Those who experience disability cannot continue to adapt to the environment around them, but demand the promotion of a world which is new, inclusive, accessible and fair for all.
Also for this reason in BionIT Labs® we feel the duty to give our support, using our skills towards a tangible social impact, which is also the Mission that most characterizes our daily work.
DISABILITY PRIDE 2021: how and when
Intersectionality is the theme to which Disability Pride is dedicated this year. Intended as the integration of different categories in different forms.
In this case, intersectionality is understood as the relationship between social categories that must necessarily be overcome, through the establishment of new integration processes, which allow diversity to be welcomed rather than defined as an isolated belonging context.
Over the coming weekend, Disability Pride will fill the streets with faces and people demanding rights and equal dignity. Conferences and shows will be accompanied by a parade, which will start from ‘Via dei Fori Imperiali’ and it will arrive at the heart of the city. Participation will certainly be extraordinary and the events will see all those who work in the network involved, such as associations, companies and individuals.
This is what Anna Fusco, one of the organizers and promoters of the initiative told us: “These events aim at the inclusion and spread of a new way of seeing disability, that implies positivity. This is because in all fields there is still a lack of a proper inclusion. “
“Even more so this year”, Anna told us, “we can’t wait to go back to the field with a smile and to give the opportunity to all the realities that will participate with us to share their themes!”. Obviously the work is still a lot, but we know that we will achieve many things with the support of everyone! ”.
On 1, 2 and 3 October we will talk about job inclusion, mass media and communication of diversity, health budget. These and other themes that will end with the pride parade for those who experience disabilities.
We will participate in the initiative too, and we look forward to telling you more about the stories and faces of those who will take part in it, with the aim of concretely supporting day after day initiatives aimed at promoting a new way of experiencing the world around us.
