The autumn national assembly of the non-profit organization Informatici Senza Frontiere, which will be held in Benevento on 18 October next, will be an important moment for discussion around the issue of disability and digital inclusion.
The prestigious headquarters of Palazzo Paolo V will host the event, which is preparing to welcome the many who will come from all over Italy to take part in the works. In particular, there will be many representatives of associations operating in Italy in the field of disabilities, with special guests the Filo d'oro league, the Italian Association of Downs (AIPD), the National Association of Families of People with Intellectual Disabilities and/ or Relational (ANFFAS) and AccordiAbili which will close the day with a concert by its president, Maestro Vincenzo Deluci.
In fact, the assembly, organized by Computer Scientists Without Borders onlus, intends to be a discussion table around the theme of disability and solidarity information technology, so much so that the entire day of 18 October will be dedicated to the theme of disability and what technology can do to reduce its inconvenience, so that a community can be born that constantly compares and can share resources, ideas, opportunities. Because it is necessary to open a discussion, share the results with those who experience disability as a personal condition, listen to their needs and difficulties. To obtain better and lasting results, to create solutions, services and tools that are not sufficient if not accompanied by a condition of participation, exchange and listening.
Precisely for this reason, the assembly will be a free and open event, which will see the morning dedicated to the presentation of ISF's projects on disability and to listening to other associations and those who wish to intervene. In the afternoon, however, working groups will be created for the elaboration of ideas and projects, taking into account what emerges during the morning. The results will then be presented in the plenary, to allow the sharing of proposals and projects that will arise.
It will in fact be in the direction of these proposals and these projects that Informatici Senza Frontiere Onlus will trace its future. The association has always been at the forefront of reducing the digital divide, in Italy and around the world, and has long since put disability at the center of its battles through projects that have led to important results, also recognized internationally. Like Paperboy/Strillone, the App that allows the blind to listen to the news of their favorite newspaper and finalist for the United Nations WSIS ITU 2014 world award, or like ISA – I Speak Again, software designed for those who can only communicate with their eyes , just to name a few. However, the results of the assembly will allow for a better definition of priorities and objectives, in order not to waste energy and enthusiasm, which have always been the engines of volunteering.
Among other things, the event has already had its own premise, made up of the Sensoltre exhibition, a multi-sensory journey in the dark between tactile paintings which between 12 and 14 September brought 450 people to Corso Garibaldi for what was, to all intents and purposes, the first stage of the Informatici Senza Frontiere assembly and which well condensed the spirit.
The exposure (http://www.sensoltre.org), which will be presented in other Italian cities in the coming months, is in fact an event created ad hoc to raise awareness of the issue of visual impairment and disseminate a new synergistic approach between technology, music and art to touch and listen to.
All visitors, sighted and blind, who chose to stop at Palazzo Paolo V during the days of the exhibition received a smartphone with NFC (near field communication) technology and a headset with which they were able to follow the route in the dark audio containing a description and selected music for each tactile work, created by Giovanni Pedote, known as GIOPE. The sighted had the special opportunity to follow the route together with a blind guide, to learn about sensations beyond sight.
This is to approach a world - that of disability - which is too often difficult to understand, with all its difficulties but also, simply, with its peculiarities.
For further information, the website dedicated to the meeting is www.equoedigitale.org.
