I toy too

Every child with disabilities, anywhere in the world, has the right to a dignified life.

According to the World Health Organization, there are over 6,000 rare diseases, and 80% have a genetic origin. According to recent estimates, in the European Union, about 30 million people suffer from a rare disease, in Italy alone there are about 2 million and of these 70% are boys and girls. In our country it would be essential to make the latest generation technological aids and aids accessible so as to guarantee children with disabilities those evident benefits derived from the progress of scientific research.

Disabilities are not an anomaly, but only one of the many variants of the human being. And the variety of human beings becomes a winning factor when everyone’s abilities and potential are used in an appropriate and effective way, also and above all to build a social life.

Traveling with Vittoria

The toy represents, for all boys and girls with disabilities, the means to establish relationships, develop motor and cognitive skills, to discover their own creativity. Often, for boys and girls with disabilities, the game is intended exclusively from a therapeutic and non-playful point of view, therefore almost always the ASLs to which they belong do not prescribe those functional aids to make toys accessible. These toys can be bought in specialized stores, only they have prices that are not affordable for everyone. Thus many boys and girls are deprived of a privileged channel to explore the outside world. This is why a legislative instrument would be important to equate the rights of civil invalids with those injured at work.

Vittoria, (in the video), is 5 years old and has a very serious disability due to a cerebral hemorrhage suffered at birth during childbirth. Thanks to the Bioengineering of Rehabilitation today nothing is impossible: the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, thanks to new assistive technologies, has allowed Vittoria to interact with a video game thanks to an eye pointer. You can see in this video Vittoria’s joy when she realized that she was the protagonist of the game.

My thoughts fly to Ukraine, where a (stupid) war, which like disease should be considered a problem to be solved and not a destiny to embrace, is depriving all boys and girls of this enchanting country the right to childhood and often to life.

Salvatore Cimmino