Wednesday, April 24, 2013

More on Le Eli-Che


It’s a bit hard to believe my time in Italy is almost over, but in two week’s time I’ll be on a plane to Paris, the beginning of my final adventure of the semester. This impending departure means I’ll also soon be saying goodbye to Le Eli-Che, the University of Parma Disability services office where I’ve been interning these past few months. Since I haven’t updated the blog in a while (apparently traveling and learning Italian takes up a lot of time), I thought I’d give a run down first of what I’ve learned about the Italian approach to disability, and then discuss Le Eli-Che more specifically.

To get a diagnosis in Italy, a person goes to their doctor and is either certified as able-bodied or disabled. If you’re diagnosed with a disability, you receive a certificate with the percentage of your disability. Ideologically, as I mentioned before, saying someone is such and such percent disabled seems problematic, but in practical terms, the disability percentages correspond to various other laws. If you are certified 66% or more disabled, for example, university tuition is free. The other law relevant to university students is 104, which guarantees equipment and accommodations at the university (this is also the law that made the creation of Le Eli-Che possible, but I’ll go into more detail there in a bit).

The disability certificates also impact employment laws. Based on your percentage of disability, people are deemed able-bodied, disabled but able to work, and disabled and not able to work. With a disability percentage of 45% or greater, you are eligible to fill one of the jobs in the 7% reserved for disabled people. There are other laws, I was told, but these are the most significant. Most of Italy’s disability laws were passed in the last 15 years, but despite being so new, they actually seem to be working out pretty well. Emilia Coronna, the director of Le Eli-Che, said that Italy is probably the most advanced country in Europe as far as disability is concerned. It’s certainly ahead of the US.

Le Eli-Che was started by Emilia in 2003 and expanded to include all services for students with learning disabilities (or DSA, as they’re called here) in 2010. Just this January the office began being able to diagnose learning disabilities. Three staff members – a speech therapist, a psychologist, and a social worker – convene to discuss cases and diagnose students. There are about a dozen staff members total (including some disabled staff members), serving a student population of around 1,000. Unfortunately with my schedule I never got to meet everyone who works there, but in addition to the people mentioned above I spent time with the LIS (Italian Sign Language) interpreter and a sports psychologist who runs Sport-Ell-Tutti, the sports program for disabled people in Parma.

Sport-Ell-Tutti is a really neat program where Le Eli-Che connects with sports centers and arenas around the Parma area and arranges for disabled people to play sports on a regular basis. It started about five years ago when Massimo, the sports psychologist, took a group of disabled students ice skating, and has since expanded to involve many sports (just off the top of my head I recall basketball, soccer, skiing, race car driving, golf, swimming, football, tennis, and hockey) and is now available to any disabled person in Parma who wants to participate. Massimo first meets with the person and works with them to figure out which sport would be the best fit, taking into consideration their preferences, their disability, and which sports centers are accessible, and then he checks in every six months to see how they’re enjoying themselves. The program is free for participants and Massimo said that around 40 different sports centers/organization in the Parma area host disabled athletes.  

In addition to Sport-Ell-Tutti, the office offers courses in Italian sign language, and runs an English class for students with learning disabilities, as foreign language is generally one of the most difficult subjects for such students. The center collaborates with health services in the city on programming as well, and Emilia organizes and speaks on a number of panels related to disability. These panels seem to be popular – there were probably 60 people at the last presentation I attended.

The main component of the center, though, is making sure disabled students have everything in place to succeed at school. When students come into the center for assistance, staff members help them plan for their time at the university. The center acquires any equipment needed, and makes sure accommodations like extended time are honored. If a student has trouble with concentration, for example, a staff member might arrange for them to take the exam in parts. If a student needs an LIS interpreter or must have a recording/note-taking program like Dragon on their computer, the office ensures these needs are met. Additionally, a large tutoring program exists to assist disabled students. The program requires a 20 hour course for all incoming tutors (which I attended), and their time commitment is in the hundreds of hours. The program seems to be quite effective, and there are certainly a number of students who want to be tutors. Le Eli-Che also offers accessible transportation and is constantly working to remove physical barriers in the university.

As far as disability services go Le Eli-Che is generally ahead of the curve. As most Italian universities are public and receive government funding to meet the needs of disabled students, there are disability services offices at other universities, but it seems like the relationships Emilia has built with the Parma community (the health services community in particular) and with the students have left Le Eli-Che better positioned than most.

If it seems like I’m writing an advertisement for Le Eli-Che, it’s only because I am so impressed with (and jealous of) their services, and, even more to the point, with their attitudes towards disability. You would expect everyone working with disabled people to believe in the dignity and autonomy of disabled people, but unfortunately, in my experience, you would be wrong. But not here. When I told Emilia and Massimo about how disabled students have been treated at my school, they were shocked. They couldn’t believe that the administration wouldn’t do anything about professors denying accommodations to a student having panic attacks or wouldn’t help a student being bullied by her suitemate because her suitemate thought she was faking her illness. When I told Massimo that people often blame disabled people when they sue for accessibility, he was speechless. After constantly having to explain to people at home why disability justice matters so much to me, it was wonderful and affirming to spend time with people who were as outraged about the treatment of disabled people as I am.

My one quibble with Le Eli-Che is that the second floor of the office is inaccessible. (It would be a much larger quibble except I get the impression they didn’t have much choice in the space, and even getting an accessible first floor must have been difficult in a city where most buildings have a step up. There is a wheelchair user who works at Le Eli-Che, and she runs her speech therapy sessions on the first floor). This flaw aside, I think Le Eli-Che is a wonderful place, and I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten the chance to intern there.