Between crisis and pandemic. Experiences of university inclusion: evidence from a research in progress

The proposal is based on the first outputs of the "Universitabile: indagine sull'inclusione universitaria degli studenti con disabilità e DSA nel contesto universitario romano" doctoral thesis, which has as its reference population students with disabilities and SLDs enrolled in the A.Y. 2020-2021 at the universities of La Sapienza, Tor Vergata and Roma Tre. The research, conducted following a mixed methods approach [12] is divided into four main phases: background research; design of a semi-structured web-survey administered to this category of students; monovariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis of the data using regression models (Di Franco, 2011); focus groups for policy suggestions. The contribution, however, focuses on interviews with staff in dedicated offices, addressing the issue of barriers and facilitation mechanisms during the Covid-19 emergency [11], recognising the ambivalent role of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), which, on the one hand acted as a facilitator allowing people with disabilities to benefit from remote lessons allowing the innovative learning process to take place, in this meaning "digital technologies allowed the continuation of the ordinary activities of schools and universities through the main tool of distance learning, thus guaranteeing the right to study" ([7], p. 96); on the other hand, the contingent situation has allowed for a reflection on the role of universities, which are configured as one of the main spaces of social life, they play a key function both in the implementation of services and in the recognition of a culture of disability [4], making use of digital technologies that are however configured as an option, not excluding traditional socialisation contexts. As a university community, it would be appropriate to reflect on the reduction of the digital divide [16], implementing forms of blended teaching, not considering it the panacea of "all ills", since its abuse could entail "in germs the cues for a reversal of perspective, which from the anti-discriminatory strategy and the egalitarian ideal risk opening the door to the most extreme differentialism" ([15]; p. 65).