On the occasion of World Rare Disease Day, Open announces the release of its new podcast In all directions, in collaboration with the Lega del Filo d'Oro, an organization that has been operating for sixty years in the field of assistance to people with deafblindness and multiple psychosensory deficiencies. From discriminatory language to sexuality, from IT and architectural accessibility to the right to education, the four episodes – available from March 7 on all listening platforms – will tackle some of the most complex aspects of life with a handicap in a world that often seems we are still unable to handle diversity. Address them with irony and sincerity, without the pietistic tones that often accompany the history of disability through the voices of those who experience it.
A journey that is sometimes difficult, sometimes reassuring, to address the main taboos and stereotypes on the subject, where discrimination arises. With the aim of leading to reflection, calling for self-criticism where necessary, imposing by the sole force of testimony and information the questioning of beliefs that are still too deeply rooted. In this journey, led by journalist Giada Giorgi, the voices of protagonists who directly experience a disability such as the Paralympic judo champion Matilde Lauria, Francesco Mercurio, a deafblind consultant on the rights of users and families of the Lega del Filo d'Oro, Stefano Iannoli and Francesca Donnarumma, a young couple in life who also share Usher syndrome and resulting deafblindness; field operators, like the president of the Golden Thread League, Rossano Bartoli, and the technical and scientific director Patrizia Ceccarani, capable of describing the daily defense of rights that are almost never guaranteed; main institutional figures called upon to provide answers on questions that are still unresolved, such as the Minister of Disability Alessandra Locatelli; doctors and experts like Dr. Fabrizio Quattrini, renowned psychotherapist and sexologist; faces from social media and entertainment committed to the proper dissemination of disability issues, from Radio Deejay's La Pina to popularizer Benedetta de Luca.
In Tutti i Sensi, the four episodes of irony and stories without access restrictions
If you are disabled then you are “special”, you are a “hero” or a “heroine”, your achieved goals will necessarily become “tasks”, your physical problem will even be a “gift”. In the scenario of an ableist culture that tends to compensate for what is considered a lack with an excessive presence of alternative gifts and abilities, the first episode of In all directions attempts to provide a practical guide to compliance. Between moments of irony and reflection, the story will continue in the second episode with the exploration of themes of sexuality and affectivity, at the center of the strongest taboos around disability. Barriers and IT accessibility will be the ideas of the third episode in which we will explore the condition of feeling outside of a rapidly changing world. Until the fourth and final episode, where the right to learn will come up against the inadequacy of a school system that is still too far behind, and will find new life in the support solutions proposed by those in the field.
