Social inclusion: a very distant goal

The news according to which, in Bari, eight people with disabilities have been sentenced to four months’ imprisonment for having demonstrated to protect their rights is from these hours

Social exclusion in Italy is growing rather than decreasing. It is no surprise to note that living in a healthy, secure society, with educational, economic and social opportunities, sheltered from oppression and corruption, open to equal opportunities is still a utopia.

Public opinion must be provoked to question the effects of physical and social barriers; on restrictions on fundamental freedoms; on the scarce resources spent on education, health and mobility.

The social inclusion of people with disabilities continues to remain an open wound, I am referring to the inalienable rights of five million people with disabilities who urgently need to be guaranteed health and social care, the right to live an independent life and more generally, to be included in society with all the opportunities (justice, education, work, social and political participation) enjoyed by other citizens.

Liberation from the captivity of disability can only be achieved through accessibility to treatments, advanced therapies and technologies (aids, orthoses and prostheses), corresponding to one’s needs as well as through the exercise of one’s rights and the sustainability of cities and of the communities, which must be free of architectural and social barriers.

I want to express my solidarity with the people condemned for wanting to demonstrate their right to a dignified life.

Salvatore Cimmino