On the occasion of the World Environment DayIL Courier of the blindHistorical magazine of the Italian Union of blind and partially sighted, has published an article from Il Giornale dell’Ambione. A collaboration that arises from a common intent: to promote the culture of inclusive, multisensory and profoundly human sustainability
The courier of the blind It is a place of narration and critical thinking, a space for comparison on social transformations perceived by those who live in the world with sensory multiplicity.
We then share with our readers the accessible link of the latest issue of the magazine that hosts our piece “Sustainable spaces and accessible environments “.
In the text there is a question that should be addressed more often by the ecological discourse: the fact that the environment, to be truly sustainable, must be accessible to all perceptual subjectivity.
A sociological reflection
Modern urban planning inherited, and largely crystallized, a model of public space conceived to measure a able-bodied, neurotypical, visual-centric individual. In this model, everything that deflects from that norm (blind, hypothesizing, neurodicing, fragile) is relegated to a condition of marginality, invisibility or difficulty.
It is the effect of an epistemic construction that has translated the neutrality of space in a form of regulatory power over the body and perception
As authors like they teach us like Paul Watzlawick o Michel Foucaultreality is not neutral, but co-built. In the same way, urban space is also the product of a dominant narrative, which can, and must, be deconstructed and rewritten.
Talking about sustainability today without talking about accessibility means perpetuating an exclishing ecology, which saves the planet but forgets its most vulnerable inhabitants.
Sensory sustainability is an ethical imperative
Currently environmental, health and social crises intertwine. It is therefore urgent to build a transdisciplinary thought capable of connecting ecology, disabilities, neurodiversity, social justice and civil rights.
This means rethinking the way we live, design and feel the world. It means recognizing that there is not only one valid mode of living in the planet, but that each body has the right to find a reflection of its sensitivity in the public space
We therefore invite you to read the PDF file of the June number 6 of the Corriere dei Blind and to reflect together with us on which world we want: a place certainly livable but also habitable by everyone.
(Click on the image and scroll up to see all the pages)