EASYSPACE. Uno spazio pubblico emancipato (impoterante) dalla prospettiva Sorda
Approximately five per cent of the world's population will experience some form of hearing impairment during their lifetime — a figure that continues to rise due to environmental factors such as noise pollution. Within this group, around 70 million people are clinically classified as "deaf". Yet, despite these numbers, deafness remains an invisible disability (World Report on Hearing, 2021). Its invisibility is partly due to the absence of outwardly recognisable signs and partly to the widespread assumption that deaf people can fully participate in society without particular accommodations, whether in relation to physical spaces or socio-cultural contexts. However, in spaces designed for collective use, deaf individuals frequently encounter marginalisation and exclusion — dynamics that become even more acute in public spaces shaped by physical, technological, and architectural barriers. The persistent neglect of deaf people's specific needs by policymakers and urban planners has historically limited their access to full societal participation, reinforcing socio-spatial injustices that deprive them of fundamental rights and equal opportunities for well-being (UN Convention, 2006; 2030 Agenda Goals). This research focuses on the Deaf signing community, engaging with both the concept of DeafSpace project and the distinctive sensory experiences of deaf individuals. Through a community-based and action-research methodology, the study involved two main components: a series of video interviews conducted in Italian Sign Language, aimed at capturing key perspectives relevant to the research, and the production of a documentary film. These two experiences have highlighted and staged some of the worst practices in terms of accessibility of public spaces from the perspective of Deaf individuals — in alignment with the overarching objectives of the research.
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