Cnr working to map the accessible sports offer

An online questionnaire open to all will be used to create an app useful to users. Interview with Marco Ferrazzoli, author of the essay that inspired the CNR project

ROME – Social, work and sporting inclusion were the themes at the center of an event which aimed to increasingly ‘normalize’ the access of people with autism to society. We are talking about the inclusive festival, now in its second edition, ‘In & Aut’which took place in recent days in Milan. Dire reached out to Marco Ferrazzoli, author of ‘Il Superdisabile’, moderator of the ‘Disability and sport’ panel: his essay also inspired a CNR project to map and then reference in an app the accessible or dedicated sports offer for people with disabilities on Italian territory.

What did you take with you from these three days?

“It was the first time I participated in the Festival and I was struck by the ability to network that this event activated. The feeling – says Ferrazzoli – is that through ‘In&Aut’ it was possible to create a ‘critical mass’ of resources present in the area, which is precisely the purpose of the Festival: to share experiences and network. The conditions are excellent and I expect that with the next editions the goals achieved will increase”.

‘Disability and sport’ is the title of the panel that you moderated within the event. A combination that is talked about a lot today. What are the practical benefits for people with disabilities and in particular with autism?

“The values of sport for people with disabilities are twofold. First of all, for many of them, sport has a direct rehabilitative function, both in psycho-intellectual and physical disabilities. This is perhaps the function The second, very important, is to activate socialization, through contact and direct comparison with others. Be careful, however, to ensure that the performance objective does not represent an anxiety-inducing factor but helps growth and development. ‘enrichment for the person’.

About sports and disabilities. Can you tell us about the project promoted by the Cnr? What does it consist of and what are the purposes?

“As part of the ‘In&Aut’ panel, we presented a Cnr project, entitled ‘Sport and disability’. Through it we are administering a questionnaire to people with disabilities of all types and severity to ‘investigate ‘what their level of sporting activity is: amateur, competitive or ‘simple’ physical activity, as well as their possible inactivity due to psycho-physical, socio-cultural or practical impediments. We would like to map this aspect of the lives of people with disabilities cognitive reasons, the Institute for Populations and Social Policies of the Cnr which deals with it has in its mission to dedicate itself to research of this type, and for an operational purpose. In fact, the information that will be taken and processed will serve the creation of an App useful to users, capable of mapping the sports offer accessible to people with disabilities in the area or dedicated to them. In short, we want to provide a practically useful tool for people with disabilities and their families. For this reason we ask anyone who wants to fill out the questionnaire at the link https://www.indagini.irpps.cnr.it/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=552414&lang=it, directly or (in case of impossibility) through a caregiver”.< /p>

You are the author of ‘Il Superdisabile. Analysis of a stereotype’, published by Lu:ce with the patronage of the Cnr and Rai for social issues. Who is the ‘Superdisabled’ and what messages can he send to the audience of young readers to hopefully build an increasingly inclusive society?

“The practice of sports by people with disabilities over the last few decades, thanks to CIP and many other initiatives such as, for example, the Special Olympics, has truly become a tool for socio-cultural change, not only for people with disabilities but for society as a whole. sport brings together so-called able-bodied people and those with disabilities. The super-disabled person is now shown and promoted comes to create thanks to this type of communication. And this is not only in the sporting field but also, for example, in the world of entertainment. Let’s think about the format of the TV program ‘Dancing with the Stars’, where there is almost always a person which presents fragility if not necessarily a disability. Let’s think about the world of cinema and the Oscar awards. We probably don’t pay attention to it, but almost every year there is a film in competition that tells a story of fragility, which becomes ‘top of the line’. and among the most awarded. We thus understand how and why the vision of disability within society is changing, obviously in a positive sense. In the book we want to trace this profile with the warning not to transform positive models as an obligation to performance or excellence. Social successes are desirable but must not be the sole objective, both for the able-bodied person and for a person with a disability”, concludes the Cnr technologist manager.