Italian Case: The Role of Learning Processes in University Inclusion

This proposal is focused on the first outputs of the doctoral thesis “Universitabile” based, specifically, on the relationship between educational inclusion (Ainscow & Miles, 2009) and ICT (Information and Communications Technology). Starting from a review of the literature on the role of universities as places of inclusion and confrontation with diversity (Bolt & Penketh, 2016; Moriña & Gavira, 2015), the proposal analyses the inclusion strategies by three main universities in Rome: La Sapienza, Tor Vergata and Roma Tre through a mixed method approach. We will show the answers to interviews administered to operators of dedicated services. In this context, ICT, during the Covid-19 emergency, acted as a facilitator allowing people with disabilities to benefit from distance learning, but also as a barrier, since the evidence shows that technology, if conceived as a facilitator but designed only on the basis of the characteristics of able-bodied users, can represent an obstacle factor. In this sense, as found by Tsatsou (2020), the inclusion of people with disabilities can be facilitated by the use of digital technologies. This view is also found in Valentini (2008), who emphasises how the use of digital technologies is a prerequisite for the development of concrete solutions. To conclude, it would be appropriate to rethink technology on the basis of Universal Design, i.e. “an approach to the design of technologies that pays more attention to the concept of universal usability: buildings and tools should be conceived, designed and constructed in a way to be usable by all” (Fiocco & Martinati, 2002, p. 232).

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