Two projects have been adopted in Italy to offer solutions to citizens in terms of disabilities, suggest solutions to the responsible agencies and facilitate access of the handicapped to the world of work. The first is the “Osservatorio legislativo accessibilità” (watchdog of legislative accessibility), set up by the Italian Fund for the removal of Architectural Barriers (FIABA) and presented at a press conference in Rome on 14 July. The watchdog, explained the president of FIABA, Giuseppe Trieste, has already “begun a programme of work to become a centre of excellence and an essential point of reference for technical experts, jurists and citizens, with the primary objective of analysing knowledge of the laws and procedures for access to services and thus promoting a new relation between citizens and institutions by creating a climate of trust and respect”. On the following day, 15 July, the experimental project “ICF (International Classification on Functioning) and labour policies” was presented. Devised by the Ministry of Welfare in cooperation with the government technical agency for employment policies (Italia lavoro), DIN (Disability Italian Network) and with the support of regions, provinces and other associations of the handicapped, the project takes its name from a plan of the World Health Organization of 2001. It is aimed, among other things, at the training of operators able to use the new classification, before proceeding to experimentation in the short term.
