Hearing disability in Italy. “Due to a series of environmental factors and the aging population, by 2050 almost 1 in 4 people could have some form of hearing impairment. Hereditary deafness represents approximately 50% of cases.” This is underlined by the 36th Eurispes Italy Report, published today.
The report recalls how “the number of minors with disabilities is increasing”. In fact, “according to ISTAT data 2022/23, pupils with disabilities in Italian schools are around 338 thousand, 4.1% of the total number of students (with an increase of 7% compared to the previous school year). Visual disabilities or hearing affect approximately 8% of students, with little significant differences between the various levels of education”. The increase in children and young people with ‘special needs’ requires schools of all levels “to employ an ever-increasing number of human resources with specific training: support teachers (increased by 10% in the 2022 school year /2023) and communication assistants, professionals specialized in the field of hearing disabilities. The greatest difficulty – highlights Eurispes – is encountered by pupils with communication disabilities (21%): less in moving (13%) and in eating ( 9%) (Istat 2023 data), the non-profit organizations that have declared that they direct their services and activities in favor of minors are approximately 65,000 (almost 18% of the total): among these, 53% operate in sports sector, 11% in that of recreational and socialization activities”.
Only in 2021 did Italy, among the last countries in Europe, Eurispes points out, “officially recognized the Italian sign language (Lis) as a minority language, promoting its protection. In recent years international legislation – with the convention UN on the rights of people with disabilities (2007) and, in Italy, with law 104/92 – tends to focus attention above all on the social dimension of disability and on everything that can amplify it or, on the contrary, reduce it”.
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