Meritocracy Italy: ‘access to culture and social inclusion’

“According to the ‘Design guidelines for the digital services of the public administration’, the Agency for Digital Italy (Agid) emphasizes the importance of inclusiveness and accessibility in the public administration. to guarantee digital public services, which are by definition more inclusive, especially for the benefit of people with disabilities. In this sense, the usability of websites should also be better thought out. In the design of a site it is necessary to imagine who will actually use the service. The model reference of the designer must coincide with that of the actual user. In this sense, there is no lack of clear normative indexes “. This is explained in a note by Meritocrazia Italia. “Consider – continues the note – Law no. 4 of 9 January 2004 (the so-called Stanca law), on the access of disabled people to IT tools; Presidential Decree no. 75 of 1 March 2005, Regulations for the implementation of the law access of disabled people to IT tools; Ministerial Decree of 8 July 2005, on the technical requirements and levels of accessibility to IT tools; Legislative Decree 18 October 2012, n.179 (converted with the form of Law 17 December 2012, n. 221), which, in art. 9, provides, among other things, the obligation for public administrations to publish on their website, the accessibility objectives for the current year and the state of implementation of the “plan for the use of teleworking “in their organization; Circulars n. 61/2013 and n. 172016 of the Agency for Digital Italy. The same Agency for Digital Italy has composed a ‘Practical guide for the creation of a document accessible'”. “Last but not least – observes Meritocrazia Italia -, objective 4 of the European Agenda for Sustainable Development underlines that it is necessary to guarantee inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote opportunities for continuous learning for all. Everything that followed is history By improving the layout and design, and therefore the accessibility of the sites, thinking of people with disabilities, it is possible to offer a better user experience for everyone. The Digital Transition Manager is the figure who, at the inside the public administration, ensures that all accessibility requirements relating to hardware and software present within the institution and to everything that is presented ‘digitally’ to the outside are respected: IT documents, sites and applications “.” With the restrictions due to the recent pandemic emergency, a lot of focus has been placed on smart working and Dad and therefore there has been a growing need for the use of digital technology for teaching and for work , but an obstacle that was thought to be insurmountable to their use has been identified: the inaccessibility by people with different abilities. Recently – explains Meritocrazia Italia -, from the Economics Library of the University of Campania ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’, following the stipulation of a contract with Cenfor International Srl, a new remote service has started: Sensus Access. This inclusive technology solution allows, thanks to an automated process, the immediate conversion of documents into an accessible format: in practice it converts inaccessible documents (photographs, pdf from scanners, etc.) into an accessible digital format such as audio, MP3, digital books in Braille, e-book, tagged Word or Pdf accessible file. It is also capable of converting texts with mathematical equations, graphics and illustrations. “” Sensus Access was created for users with special needs: blind, converting the material into Braille; partially sighted, enlarging the large print; visually impaired, converting to Audiobooks; people with DSA, converting to audiobooks and adapted printed material; physical disabilities, converting into digital editions that can be read by specific devices for their needs and then used with commands with switches. The system – explains the note from Meritocrazia Italia – responds to the guidelines for the right to study of pupils and students with specific learning disabilities. It is part of the compensatory instruments for students with Dsa. In reality everyone can use it, even students of foreign languages ​​or with different learning modalities, teachers or Ta staff to convert existing Pdf documents. Everything can be converted into accessible formats, including course lecture notes for didactic use. “” Sensus Access is in use in the most important libraries of US universities and, at the moment, only in some Italian universities, including the State University of Milan, the Catholic University of Milan, the University of Insubria and the University of Salerno. One way, for the University and the business world, to make themselves available to citizens by providing an inclusive and socially useful service: the possibility for people with disabilities to read and study remotely, breaking down the barriers of diversity. It would be useful – according to Meritocrazia Italia -, as a corollary, to create a network of users with visual impairments in schools and universities who can, after agreement with the universities, take advantage of this valuable, innovative and inclusive service. Another important and fundamental method for the educational integration of the blind is the traditional Braille language. In fact, if it is true that many blind young people are now accustomed and educated to the use of new technologies, the braille reading and writing system remains of primary importance for access to studies and in general for the training of young students. There are many Braille printers scattered throughout the Italian territory. Note those of Catania and the Library for the blind of Monza “.” Another precious tool made available by the Italian Blind Union – notes the note – is the ‘spoken book’ service which, through the incessant work carried out by many volunteers from all over Italy, also allows the elderly to have access to books, texts, poems and various fiction that would otherwise be closed to them. Even in the case of different abilities, access to reading, be it for study, reading or passion, is possible, but it must be guaranteed for everyone and without any disparity. The Department of Museums, Archives and Libraries and the Disability Department of Meritocrazia Italia undertake to create a mapping of the services active in the national territory in such a way as to ensure that anyone with different needs can find more easily active and functioning support networks “.