Human society is built on fantasies of happiness, efficiency and heroism. People love to glorify winners, but they tend to overlook those who can't participate in the social marathon. The reality of the problems disabled people face is overshadowed by heroism. However, we need to talk more about the problems they face, and make the way people talk about them more positive and normal, which would be a big step towards social equality for disabled people.
A true musical genius
Matteo is an Italian foodie who loves to cook and taste food from different countries. His favorite Chinese food is "fat beef in golden soup". He lived in Milan, but he always supported the Roma team, and always quarreled with his friends over the matches. He listens to a half-hour podcast every day on his way to his job at an energy company in Italy. He felt that podcasts were a more authentic way of expressing what the public was thinking than newscasts.
I've heard of Matteo, my classical guitar teacher's favorite. "Matteo has been taking classical guitar lessons from me for over 10 years." The teacher always said, "He is hardworking and talented. He has a very good sense of tone and memory. He can recite a piece of music once he hears it."
It makes me, a musical underachiever, rather jealous that someone with talent should be diligent. I do not believe that any man can memorize a tune by heart after one hearing. If he could do so, he would be Beethoven. Finally, one day, I decided to get up early and go to my classical guitar teacher's class just to see Matteo.
I sneaked up to the music room, peeked in the corner of the window, and found my teacher and Matteo strumming a guitar together in the strangest position. Matteo is sitting in a chair, and the teacher is standing behind the chair with her arms around matteo. She's holding his hand and plucking the strings -- they're playing the guitar hand in hand. I stumbled on a big, taboo secret and, too embarrassed to spy on it, kept telling myself, "This is Italy, everything is normal."
Just as I was about to leave quietly, Matteo was keenly aware of my presence, and I had no place to hide but to stand outside the window and greet them awkwardly. The teacher calmly opened the door for me and invited me into the classroom. Matteo greeted me politely, and I tried to remain calm, pretending to forget what I had just seen. "Sorry, I didn't notice you." "My eyes are not so good, I can hardly see anything," Mr. Matteo said.
I noticed that When Matteo spoke to me, he didn't make eye contact with me as normal people do. He looked at me, but his eyes leaped straight past me, piercing my shame -- he was visually impaired.
I was momentarily stunned, as if any overreaction would be rude to him. It was the first time THAT I had come face to face with a disabled person. In my past life, I would bump into them on the street from time to time, but I wouldn't get a chance to actually talk to them. People with disabilities can never be treated equally, but more like a fragile item - handled with care and care. They are often invisible in our lives, too, and physical inconveniences keep many people with disabilities from learning and working in ordinary Settings.
Of the seven members of the Alabama Black Super, four are blind (including the three lead singers). It's impossible not to like the group because they have moved so many people.
Matteo seemed to read my concern and volunteered, "Even though I have a visual disability and can only see very dim, tiny things, I can see that you must be a great beauty. Nice to meet you!"
What a pure, direct Italian pick-up line, he laughs as much as any Italian! I couldn't help laughing, which was mostly a relief. Every time I recall this episode, I can't help but wonder: How many times must a disabled person have to go through this opening line before he knows how to defuse someone's embarrassment so naturally? In front of them, it is us able-bodied ordinary people who are vulnerable.
The man most often praised in my childhood compositions, the Chinese folk musician Abing, was blind. Although I often write about his fate and tenacity, my understanding of him remains abstract. I can't imagine how much effort it would take for a blind person to master a musical instrument: how could he recognize the instrument in his hand and know exactly which string to place his hand on? How does he play music without being able to read the score? As I looked at Matteo, who had skillfully positioned his guitar and was fumbling for the strings, my childhood confusion was about to be revealed.
Classical guitar lessons continue. The teacher placed both hands on Matteo's and helped him find chord positions one note at a time. Each finger has a numerical code: 1 for index finger, 2 for middle finger, 3 for ring finger... As matteo felt where his fingers were, the teacher used numerical codes to prompt him to pluck the strings. On top of that, Matteo's feet kept beating, memorizing the rhythm of each note. When a bar of melody was smoothly completed, the teacher let go of her hand and asked Matteo to play on her own. Over and over again, until he knew the melody by heart.
Unable to read music, Matteo had to learn all the new tunes by heart in class. It was not just a matter of memorizing the text, but of memorizing the position of his hands, the rhythm of the notes, and the playing skills. At the same time, in order to prevent forgetting after class, the first thing Matteo does every day when he gets home from class is to take out his guitar again and consolidate the songs he has learned. And so on, day after day.
After class, Matteo performed a flamenco song for me. The flamenco beats fast, but Matteo's air is at home, his fingers flying up and down the strings, tapping each note with as much precision and power as a dancer's heels hitting the stage floor. Instead of frowning and staring at the fretboard like other players, he knew all the fingering and positions by heart. All he had to do was let his hands follow the muscle memory and let all his emotions flow on the guitar. Because he is nearly blind, he says, anything he does must reduce the chance of going wrong, which could have unpredictable consequences. Because of this, he developed a powerful memory, which gave him an advantage over ordinary people in some aspects.
British pensioner Margaret McNeil, 95, has created more than 350 amazing paintings while almost completely blind. Margaret, a retired garment worker, began studying art at night at a friend's invitation after her husband George died in 1994. Margaret's eyesight has been deteriorating and she is currently completely blind in one eye and extremely weak in the other, but relies on her sense of touch and memory to create a number of beautifully coloured landscapes and animal paintings.
In his later years, Monet suffered from cataracts, an eye disease. After surgery, his vision and color perception could not return to normal. But he did not stop paintbrush, but more work on the giant "Water Lily" series.
Matteo, absorbed in the fervid rhythm, reminded me of flamenco dancers. Unlike other dance styles, flamenco dancers are not usually delicate young girls, but women who look weathered and experienced. Flamenco originated in Spanish folk, it was first used to vent anger, sadness and resistance, therefore, the dance is often accompanied by tough in the soft, even a bit fierce, body language to be as sharp as they look in the eyes, as if to say women in the world of mortals after disintegration of strong ego, no longer need the guide and salvation of others. Matteo's strong ego makes him a musical prodigy above ordinary people. For the first time in my life, when I looked at a disabled person, I saw not his sadness and hardship, but the real me after removing the disability label.
A barrier-free city for the disabled
Legal systems across Europe ensure that disabled people like Matteo can lead orderly daily lives. Only when their daily lives are ensured can they have the same opportunities to explore life's possibilities as ordinary people. There are many areas of disability-related legislation - schools, work, health, sport, tourism, social policy, etc. The most important of these, of course, is accessibility in public Spaces.
Accessibility, which allows people with disabilities to travel independently, affects many aspects of their daily lives: from sidewalks to public transportation, from ATMs to elevators, from restaurants to schools, offices and public institutions... The perfection of barrier-free facilities in a city is the pronoun of urban civilization, which means that the public space and services in a city can be established on the basis of the principle of equality, ensuring that the disabled can live as freely as ordinary people.
Under Italian law, accessibility in cities is mainly about helping people with impaired movement or perception to travel safely and autonomously, and to use public Spaces and services. It specifically includes blind lanes, parking Spaces for the disabled, assistive equipment for wheelchair access, health services and transport. When I first came to Italy, I was unfamiliar with many of the accessibility features: why there were lifts at the sides of the stairs in the subway, but no one ever used them; Why every bus has a lot of reserved space and no seats installed; Why is there a chain on a post in a subway car... Until one day, when I was on a bus, it came to a slow stop and the driver unexpectedly cut off the engine. I looked nervously at the driver's seat, wondering what part of the Italian public transport system this was: bus drivers went on strike and kicked everyone off the bus; Or the driver suddenly stops and gets off the bus and stands chatting with other bus drivers on the side of the road. Or the road ahead breaks down and the bus stops running halfway... All this is common in Italy. The driver calmly got out of the front door, took out a slender iron bar, walked to the middle door of the bus, and used the iron bar to pull out an iron plate from the front door, leaning against the road, forming a slope. Then a disabled man in a wheelchair emerged from the station and the driver pushed him into the bus using a ramp. In a flash, passengers on the bus have to give up a spacious space for the disabled man, the driver pushed him to the reserved space designed for the wheelchair, for him to fasten a special safety belt. After all this, the driver returned to his seat and started the bus.
All the passengers waited a long time for the disabled to get on and off the bus, but none of them complained. I have often been puzzled and annoyed by the extreme unpunctuality of Italy's public transport system, but the long waits have been relieved by how well it treats the disabled. In fact, disabled people struggle with obstacles all their lives. When they are not able to solve difficulties in life, all they have to do is wait -- for ordinary people, this wait may be only a short, anxious five minutes on the way to work, but for disabled people, this wait is with them all their life.
In order to build a barrier-free city, Italy has set a minimum width for pavements in cities; Doors to all buildings must be wide enough for wheelchairs or scooters; Elevators must be provided wherever there are stairs; There must be separate toilets for the disabled in public places with emergency call buttons; Urban highways must have sound and light signage and braille signs along them.
Italy is a country with rich art, history, and wonders, although is turning into a barrier-free city developed city, but in some of the old city, especially in places that is full of monuments and historical sites, thanks to the protection of the historical and cultural monuments and buildings there are strict rules, barrier-free facilities are typically hard to build. In outdoor Italy, square stone floor tiles can be seen everywhere. This kind of floor tiles is one of the cultural characteristics of Italy. They spread beautiful and dignified patterns on the outdoor ground, usually all over the city center, gathering squares and other crowded places. However, there is a large gap between each floor tile, and the uneven surface of the floor tile will bring great travel problems to the disabled. Also, in order to guarantee the beauty of the city, Italian street lights at night usually use soft light, so that the city's historic center, streets, and old buildings is hazy beauty, but the strength of this kind of lighting is not enough for some people with disabilities - deaf people only depend on adequate lighting, can read lips and sign language.
The accessible design of the modern building space is universal, accommodating the width of wheelchairs, and the gradient of the ramp is suitable for manual wheelchairs.
Accessible toilets.
In London, the barrier-free facilities of buses make it easy for people with disabilities to travel.
Pompeii for all
The most costly disability for disabled people is political disability. It is a social, political and cultural defect to prevent disabled people from entering libraries, art galleries and government offices. Urban modernity and historical preservation are mutually restrictive. Disabled people rarely have the opportunity to appreciate these cultural heritages up close. When these cultural projects exclude disabled people, they also prevent them from participating fully in economic, political and social life.
The archaeological site of Pompeii in Italy has developed a nearly 3-kilometer-long archaeological route for people with disabilities, making it the longest archaeological tour for people with disabilities in Italy. The archaeological trail is designed for disabled people with walking difficulties, parents with baby strollers and tourists with limited energy. It was called "Pompeii for all" and gave everyone the chance to see Pompeii in the most complete and easy way possible. The route follows Pompeii's main route to the city's most iconic monuments: metal walkways inlaid around the 1,000-year-old stone slabs that allow easy access for wheelchairs; Installation of detachable barrier-free ramps at entrances to key buildings; At the entrance of the theater, disabled people are given smart bracelets to identify their movements and possible accidents.
The Pompeii archaeological site in Italy has developed a nearly 3-kilometer archaeological route for the disabled, making it the longest archaeological tour for the disabled in Italy.
Non-slip walkways for wheelchairs and strollers
This year, Luxembourg was awarded the best accessible city in Europe by the European Disability Forum, ahead of Helsinki in Finland and Barcelona in Spain, which took second and third place respectively. Since 2010, the awards have ranked the most livable cities in Europe for people with disabilities based on the accessibility and availability of public space, transport and related infrastructure to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. As these awards show, accessible urban planning is now going digital: using digital services to help people with disabilities perceive, understand and navigate, addressing their visual, auditory, physical and language-related difficulties. Google Maps plans special safe travel routes for people with disabilities by analyzing accessibility on maps; At the same time, people with disabilities can upload their own photos at the markers on the map to tell others with similar difficulties whether the accessibility facilities are working properly. Digital services can also solve the difficulty of using computers for people with disabilities, solve their physical disabilities with digital assistive devices, help more people with disabilities join the workforce, and even enjoy electronic entertainment like ordinary people.
Digitisation makes disabled people's voices no longer buried
To the outside world, disabled people live their entire lives on the edge of a cliff. The proliferation of digital assistive devices has rediscovered the world for many disabled people, and just as Matteo spends his spare time immersed in music, a significant number of young people devote their spare time to gaming: disabled gamers have a unique influence on gaming platforms.
A brain-controlled artificial intelligence (AI) exoskeleton developed by the University of Grenoble in France allows paralysed patients to move their arms and legs autonomously.
The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Turin, Italy, offers deaf visitors Google Glass equipped with sign language. The glass is integrated with video content introduced in sign language.
Microsoft's 2018 improved gamepad for people with disabilities.
A user nicknamed "Deaf Player TV" is one of the most popular disabled streamers on overseas live-streaming platforms. In video games, listening plays a very important role. In addition to communicating with your teammates in a team game, in a single player game, you need to pay attention to which direction the enemy's footsteps are coming from, and different sound effects can be used to represent different effects of the game. It's hard to perform well in video games when you're hearing impaired -- without hearing, you're missing an important weapon. "Webcasting was the beginning of my journey as a deaf and hard of hearing gamer," said Deaf Gamer TV's real name is Robinson. Because I felt I needed to share my struggles as a deaf gamer, and I wanted to speak out on behalf of other deaf gamers about the ways in which games ignore us until these inequities are addressed. Just like game subtitles, we deaf players don't just want simple letters, we want to be able to adjust the size, position, font and color of the subtitles to our liking so that we can feel comfortable while playing the game."
As Robinson's audience grew, his vocal advocacy for the hearing impaired exceeded his expectations. Famous game companies, including Microsoft, have invited him to speak on the accessibility of games for people with disabilities, in order to raise the awareness of game companies for people with disabilities. Each conference represents a growing number of companies willing to listen and record the voices of people with disabilities, whose voices are no longer so easily ignored in the digital age.
It's particularly puzzling that, despite Robinson's influence on live gaming platforms, there hasn't been a dedicated channel for people with disabilities. Because overseas live-streaming platforms, which often include channels for other marginalized groups, allow everyone to find healthy, like-minded communities where they can gather and watch their favorite streams. However, disabled viewers and content creators must rely on other channels to promote and find their audience. Disabled people are not special, they make up 15% of the world's population, a much higher proportion than other marginalized groups.
Robinson understands that it takes time for the voices of the disabled to be heard. "Today, our goal is to provide a welcoming space for able-bodied players to participate, join the disabled community and listen to the disabled world." Most of Robinson's livestream is in the fighting game section, and many non-disabled casual gamers are his biggest fans. "They have witnessed the unique gameplay and manipulation of deaf people, and I believe these entertaining broadcasts can help reduce social discrimination against people with disabilities and teach more people tolerance."
Back in 2018, Microsoft designed a modified version of a gamepad for people with disabilities: it would allow people with disabilities to control gaming devices with different parts of their bodies, such as their head, feet or mouth, and players could even control on-screen movement by blowing air. The gamepad, designed for the disabled, represents a huge victory for disabled gamers who have long been vocal. Since then, other game companies have rushed to develop different accessible controllers and game AIDS for people with disabilities, and even blind and low-vision players can actually enjoy games. Game company for disabled players user experience improvement, far more than the governments of barrier-free act - whether it's for the deaf and the blind players or other disabilities, their respective channel in the game of live and called for, in fact is a kind of "onlooker movement", these players to overcome difficulties, break through the difficulty of the game, In the process of struggle, other disabled players are gathered together, and eventually form a state of common struggle. If no one throws that stone, the calm water will not raise a wave, only when the wave, the voice of the disabled will be spread.
Two wheels and one leg
Luca is an avid cyclist who has competed in the famous Tour de Italy and is the founder of the Association "Two Wheels and one Leg". On August 4, 2016, Luca was knocked down by a car while riding his bicycle. He suffered severe damage to his left leg, left foot and left elbow, as well as varying degrees of damage to his nose and right eye. He was laid up for more than a year, underwent 41 surgeries, and had countless screws and bolts nailed to his leg. During his recuperation, he was never able to ride a bike again until 2019, when all doctors decided that amputating his left leg would be Luca's only option.
Luka refers to the day of the accident as "year zero" -- the end of the first half of his life and the day his life was turned upside down. At some point in life, people have to make choices, and collapse is not the only end of life. Luca's goals in life used to be to travel to Morocco with Julia, travel the length of Italy on a bicycle, and win the Tour de Italy. All he wanted more than anything was to get back on his feet and get back on his bike.
Luca had one of the darkest years of his life in 2018, but his girlfriend Julia chose to marry him at his bedside. Julia and Luca agreed that when he was back on his feet, they would take a bike trip to Morocco together. This dream has inspired Luca to do rehabilitation training and adapt to the prosthesis, always reassuring himself: "The harder I work today, the longer I can walk tomorrow." It could be said that the bicycle destroyed Luca's life, but it also created a drive for him to pursue life.
It was during the long recovery that Luca was given a chance to reflect on his life. He came up with the idea of "two wheels and one leg" : he would ride on a prosthetic bicycle from Italy to Morocco, organising fundraising events along the way to collect prosthetic limbs from developed countries and donate them to disabled people in developing countries. Luca hopes that his passion for cycling can be translated into something more concrete, as if the end of a ride is no longer the end of a journey.
In October 2020, Luca and Julia embarked on a ride from Genoa, Italy, to Morocco, armed with few clothes, a COVID-19 negative certificate and a surge of hope. After a nine-week, 9,000km journey through mountain loops, sharp rocks and rough dirt, Luca arrived in Senegal. Through the fundraising campaign, Lucali successfully used the money to recover 206 prosthetic limbs, donated to the African Rehabilitation center for the Disabled.
"Life is 10 percent what you see and 90 percent what you think. Luca hopes he can stand with people with disabilities, listen to their stories and talk to relevant agencies to find concrete solutions to the problems of people with disabilities that are often overlooked. Most of all, he supports disabled people who feel abandoned after becoming disabled, recreating passion and keeping the flame of hope alive for those who no longer feel confident about their future. People with disabilities must be truly empowered to take control of their lives. For them, anything is possible.
The ancient city of Verona in Italy is the home of Romeo and Juliet.
A ride to Tuscany brings a different kind of scenery.
The Port of Palermo, Sicily, has recreational motorcycle lovers and kiosks for tourists.
Starting in Verona, Luca cycled along the Italian border and coastline.
After the success of Morocco 2020, Lucca reimagined a second charity ride. This time he set his sights on Italy itself: On September 1, 2021, Luca set off from Romeo and Juliet's hometown of Verona and cycled more than 2,000 kilometers along Italy's borders and coastline to Palermo. Then he returned from the far south, passing through the splendour of Tuscany, Liguria, Lombardy and back to Verona, completing his tour of Italy. Luka receives an unprecedented welcome in the square of the ancient city of Verona on November 11, 2021. Through the charity ride, he recovered more than 140 prosthetic limbs from private and orthopedic hospitals; He propagated in various cities, so that "Two wheels and one leg" generated a strong appeal across Italy, and many caring people donated equipment for the disabled. Luca says: "Now I know my mission more clearly than ever. I will ride harder and spread my spirit to others."
According to a survey of the general public's attitudes towards disabled people, 77 per cent think talking about disability is a "sensitive" subject. If a person loses his leg or is born with a disability, he has to learn to manage his pain, accept himself, adapt to a different daily lifestyle, get the right prosthetics, learn to drive with them... So he could get the job he wanted. Even today, people with disabilities are considered "sick" and "unproductive," despite the fact that accessible assistive devices can assist people with disabilities to function well.
Social inclusion comes from inclusion at work, which is the foundation of everyone's life and does not distinguish between "able-bodied" and "disabled". Bureaucracy, waste of resources and institutional constraints make life even harder for people with disabilities who already have a long list of problems to deal with. However, people with disabilities should not be weighed down by such concerns.