Inclusion as an Instrument of Personal Experience: a series of events on the right to independence

Norrbyvälle gård farm is a social therapeutic initiative that has been running for 35 years in the Swedish city of Järn. About 30 young people with autism live and work on the farm. The vegetables and fruit grown there are delivered to a local café, where they are cooked by the young people themselves. Mats-Ola Olsson will talk about how this initiative was created, describe Swedish state policy on support for people with disabilities since 1950, and explain how attitudes toward people with disabilities in Sweden have changed over time.

After the presentation, a discussion will be held with the participation of Yulia Akhtyamova.

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Speakers:

Mats Ola Olsson, is one of the founders of Norrbyvälle gård farm (Sweden) and General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in Sweden.

Julia Akhtyamova is a psychologist, project manager of the “Special Childhood” Center for Clinical Pedagogy, and an expert at the Life Path Foundation.

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The day after the pandemic: what will change in the life of people with disabilities, and will it change at all? What if self-isolation is a great opportunity to boost empathy and society’s understanding of such people’s condition.

Kapka Panayotova will talk about how people with disabilities can draw the attention of those who are now locked in their homes only because of the pandemic. Inaccessible build environment, lack of accessible transport and housing as well as lack of personal assistance and community acceptance, prevent disabled people from having social interaction. They are often closed behind the doors of their own homes or—even worse—in special social care institutions, where their identities are blurred, needs neglected, aspirations ignored. Today most people around the globe are stuck home due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation but they know someday their imprisonment will be over. They fail to think about people who are forced to stay at home for life. Now is the perfect time to raise disability awareness within society and show what it takes to have disabled people included.

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How are people with disabilities in the Czech Republic experiencing the current crisis? What problems do people with disabilities face in their personal lives? Who helps to solve them and how? How does the sexuality support system for people with disabilities work? What competencies should assistants working in this field have? Peter Eisner, an independent expert on the topic of the sexuality of people with disabilities, will try to answer these and other questions.

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The Delegation of the European Union to the Russian Federation and Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, in partnership with Life Route Charitable Foundation—supporting people with learning disability, continue the series of events on the right to independence Inclusion as an Instrument of Personal Experience. The next event, due to begin at 19:00 on June 30, is a meeting with Kalliopi Gkika (Greece) entitled “New Tactility Era: Blind Visitors in the Museum during the Pandemic.”

The world after the pandemic requires the rejection of “extra” touching or at least the wearing of gloves. How should blind and hard of hearing people behave in this situation, for whom touching is an integral part of exploring the world?  And what could museums that spend years on the development of special tactile programs involving the use of models from various materials do to avoid being limited to verbal descriptions of objects alone? Participants of the talk— Kalliopi Gkika, and Mikhail Shu—will discuss the new challenges as well as plans for the future.

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