The inclusion of students with disabilities at university. Technology: a facilitator?

The university, as the main social space, can contribute to breaking down material and immaterial barriers that exclude the person with disabilities, limiting the individual's right to participate in activities and contributing to discriminatory conditions. The lack of accessibility to places and the persistence of discrimination and stigma, however, are not the only impediment. 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. The author emphasises how these help to alleviate stigma: - helping them in performing daily tasks and assisting them in overcoming disability-related difficulties ; - enabling connection between the same types of disabilities, increasing the sense of belonging and improving social inclusion; - facilitating processes of self-identification and confidence in communicating with others mediated by technology. 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, since these "break down boundaries and create a new deterritorialised space that can be accessed by a wider range of users than traditional students" (ibid.; p. 17). In fact, deterritorialisation "creates the conditions for carrying out actions and accessing services related to teaching and university education from different places." (ibid., p. 22). To conclude, it would be appropriate to rethink technology on the basis of the concept 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 such a way as to be usable by all" (Fiocco, Martinati, 2002; p. 232).