Windows on the world: disability and experience

The project

The project "Windows on the world: disability and experience" was launched in 2017 with the aim of raising awareness in the university world about a subject that is often silent or treated with embarrassment: disability. Since 2017 we have been collecting the experiences of those who attend, teach or work at the University of Bologna and have embraced our invitation to talk about their disability or their experience in contact with people with disabilities. "Windows on the world" is a space for community, understanding and sharing.

The book

The book Io a loro ho cercato di spiegare  che è una storia complicata la nostra. Voci, esperienze, testimonianze sulla disabilità all'Università di Bologna (Bologna, BUP 2018) collects the writings of current and former students, PhD candidates, lecturers, employees and tutors of the University of Bologna who share a disability. The publication was created to make readers aware of this issue, starting from the belief that people who live a form of disability on a daily basis can and should speak about it.

We are creating a NEW VOLUME with new contributions, and we invite you to submit yours. More detailed information is available in the section "Work with us".

The audiobook

Since the goal is to make the book accessible to as many people as possible, it is also available as an audiobook in MP3 format to meet the needs of the blind, visually impaired and dyslexic or simply those who wish to approach the volume in this form. The contributions that will make up the new book will also be available as an audiobook in MP3 format, thanks to the collaboration of Camilla Tumidei.

Translations

The entire book is already available in English (translations by Nicola Bardasi, Yuri Lysenko, Eleonora Perugini, Zazie Alberta Piva, Gabriele Savioli; revision by Peter Henderson) and the translation into Arabic (Ahmed Omari El Jazouli), Chinese (Shan Du), Spanish (Nicola Bardasi, revision by Gabriela Barros), in Portuguese (Deisy Christine Mazzini, revision by Maria Anita Cutini and Tiziano Tosarelli) and inTamil (Shalini Santiyagoo) is in progress (some selected pieces are already available). We believe that the translators, as well as the authors of the contributions, are fully part of the community of those who animate our project contributing to it in a free and voluntary way with their skills and sensitivity.

The English version of the new volume is being translated by Enrica Chili and proofread by Rosemary Claire Burnham.

As part of the “Adotta un capitolo” project, class 4Y of the Liceo "Ludovico Ariosto" in Ferrara, led by Professor Roberta Bergamaschi, translated part of the book into German. The collaboration with a High School has a double meaning. On the one hand, it allows us to take the contents of Io a loro ho cercato di spiegare che è una storia complicata la nostra beyond the university environment. On the other hand, it is an extension of the awareness-raising process which is the main purpose of “Windows on the world”. Translation, in fact, is an essential moment in the dissemination of the book's contents in languages other than Italian, but it is also an opportunity to approach more directly an aspect of the human condition such as disability, about which stereotypes and trivialisations are widespread and often constitute a barrier to mutual understanding between people.

Presentations 

The book will be presented in the courses of the Department of History, Culture and Civilization of the University of Bologna and in any other course of the University that might be interested.

Disability and the anthropological view

Anthropology is characterized by its tendency to "put oneself in the shoes of others" and gives great importance to experience, to its narration and circulation. The anthropological view of experience focuses on aspects that may seem unimportant but actually are, instead, very significant for those who live them.

Observing disability from this anthropological perspective means giving centrality to the voices and testimonies of those who live this existential condition in first person, without attempting to narrow it to clear-cut definitions.

Through its texts and interviews, the book shows a cross-section of the multiplicity of ways of being in the world enclosed in the word "disability", a plurality influenced by numerous social, economical and cultural factors.

The writings collected aim at opening a dialogue and exchange capable of questioning some stereotypes regarding disability and reducing the embarrassment, distance and silence that sometimes mark the relationship between people with disabilities and those without.