The Inclusion and Plurality Office is now open in Florence and Milan seats. The award-winning short film “Ronzio” raises awareness about SEN.
The Inclusion and plurality project for the IED community
Date
24 September 2024
The new office aims at enhancing the individual's abilities and raising awareness regarding learning disorders through a cultural message.
Since 2018, there has been a 50% increase in the number of IED students who have presented a certification for SLD (Specific Learning Disabilities) or who have highlighted other learning disorders or SEN (Special Educational Needs).
These numbers describe a cross-section of the student community at the Istituto Europeo di Design. In fact, IED's Inclusion and Plurality project does not only address the needs of its community - including students presenting SLD or SEN, transgender as well as gender non-conforming students (GNCs) - but it also seeks to promote an inclusive environment first and foremost, taking into account the abilities and aspirations of each individual as well as conveying cultural awareness messages.
This has resulted in the birth of the Inclusion and Plurality Office, which opened for an experimental period in the IED seat in Florence, active instead since 2018 as the Inclusion Working Group service in IED Milano and evolving into the Inclusion and Plurality Office. The aim is to eventually have a dedicated office or contact person in all of the Group's seats, to implement the services currently active as well as to provide training and refresher courses for lecturers by subject area (theoretical, instrumental, design).
IED, as a charitable company, also aims to generate shared value for the community and the environment, with a pledge to operate responsibly, sustainably and transparently towards people, communities and territories. In this vein, OffiCine (a cultural project and an initiative of IED) produced the short film Ronzio, which explores precisely the topic of SEN.
With “Ronzio”, IED received a special mention in the “De Sanctis Prize for Social Health”, “for the extraordinary ability to render in a short “tale of images” the difficulties experienced by students suffering from AHDH (i.e. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder)”.
The Inclusion and Plurality Office contributes to IED's inclusion pathway, which promotes actions to support gender policies and eliminate all forms of violence. This has led to the activation in 2022 of Alias career in all of the Group's Italian seats, as well as the membership in 2019 of the Fondazione Libellula network. The latter seeks to bring together companies committed to addressing all forms of violence against women and encouraging a culture of respect towards them. As a sign of taking a stand against gender-based violence, the Group's Italian seats were decorated with six red benches in 2021 in honour of the international day to end violence against women. A Listening Desk has also been available since 2016 to students and since 2018 to employees and lecturers, offering psychological support, religious and cultural integration, as well as coaching services. The latest addition to the culture of plurality is the Gender Equality Plan: a policy document supporting gender equality.
THE INCLUSION AND PLURALITY OFFICE
The Inclusion and Plurality Office assesses and assists students from the moment of enrolment until the completion of their academic programme. Among the main activities in place are those related to pathways for individuals with learning disabilities. These include interviews during the admissions phase and subsequently for the drafting of PSPs (personalised study plans), as well as (if necessary) interviews with families and psychotherapists; assistance with the English language learning process through individual and targeted testing; tutoring service; assistance during examinations with the possibility of transforming written tests into oral tests and alternatively (when the contents of the tests and disciplinary fields do not allow it, or at the direct request of the person concerned) of taking the written test for an extended period of time.
An assessment of the overall workload is included in the formulation of a personalised study plan. Furthermore, supplementary or compensatory measures, such as concept maps, tutorials, printouts, or oral narration, are proposed for those with reading difficulties. All these are methods for overcoming physical, perceptual, sensory, communicative, cultural, and virtual barriers.
These activities are complemented by the management of the Listening Desk (for students, lecturers and staff) and the Alias career. This involves the assignment of a provisional, transitional, and non-consolidated identity as well as the preparation of identification documents for internal use indicating the chosen Alias call sign. Alias identity encompasses matters of personal security for individuals who must use a name other than their registered one. In both cases, IED issues a new badge and a new Alias account for all specific internal activities. The Alias career will be closely associated with the one containing the applicant's personal data. Furthermore, it will remain active for the duration of the academic period, unless otherwise requested by the individual.
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