In the latest episode of the podcast Grande Giove by Wired Italia, hosts Daniele Ciciarello and Matteo Imperiale explored the relationship between the Internet and accessibility, inviting Valentina Tomirotti and myself to discuss it.
Some necessary premises 👇
✅ I talked about how my profession is addressing the issue of accessibility – both as a designer and from the perspective of the Experience Design Academy, an opinion that – as mentioned in the podcast – must always be weighed by those who experience certain barriers firsthand and who should increasingly become active participants in the project (in the current Italian scenario, these figures do not yet overlap much).
✅ The podcast uses person-first language (people with disabilities). I chose to use identity-first language (disabled people). Both are equally valid choices that depend on many variables, and some have already explained this well.
✅ At one point, I talk about my experience in designing products for autism, which is a neurodivergence, but NOT synonymous with disability. However, the people we work with at the COmeta Laboratory at Politecnico di Milano with Venanzio Arquilla, Fabio Guaricci, and Federica Caruso have serious motor and cognitive mismatches; these are what I referred to when talking about “possible challenges” for designers.
✅ At the same time, we tried to deconstruct the binary conception that commonly separates people we define as able-bodied from those we define as disabled. By triangulating these last two aspects, I hope the meaning of my intervention is clear.
👀 You can watch it here:
👂🏼 You can listen here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1kz665AlnFRlUS37hyKUQr?si=76d09ecb9bd04e56