#EuropeanMobilityWeek, the shame of Rome on Euronews in 9 languages

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Published by Dario Dongo on 24 September 2022

1) #EuropeanMobilityWeek, the Euronews report

Euronews - Partner #MobilityWeek official - offers a report in 9 languages about the disaster of the 'Eternal City'. Disability is narrated 'from below', thanks to the commitment of the journalist Giorgia Orlandi in following the (dis) adventures of a person in a wheelchair:

those who are unable to tackle the steps are forced to move on the road in the midst of cars, since almost all the sidewalks have no ramps,
famous monumental areas, such as the Colosseum, are largely inaccessible. As well as hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, banks, public and private buildings,
the subway managed by ATAC SpA, owned by the Municipality of Rome, is suffering from a structural lack of elevators. And the stair lifts are often out of order.

1.1) Rome, Lazio. The mockery of politics

Georgia Orlandi, the reporter of Euronews, called for feedback from local politics on the disaster that he was able to see firsthand. Law 41/1986, it should be remembered, required all the Municipalities of Italy to adopt the Plans for the Elimination of Architectural Barriers by 1.3.87. And the Regions, after 12 months, should have commissioned the defaulting Municipalities. But in Rome, Lazio, Italy, none of this happened. (1)

Rome is the absolute disaster and the politicians of all colors who have governed the capital and its region - in the 35 years since the aforementioned law - have always ignored the fundamental human rights of people with various disabilities and frailties, including the elderly and tourists (2,3 ).

The councilor for mobility Eugenio Patanè he has now presented himself to Euronews as if the junta had just taken office and was facing new problems today. Too bad that a year has already passed in vain (4) and he himself was already chairman of the Infrastructure, Public Works, Mobility and Transport commission, in his second term as councilor in the Lazio Region. Meanwhile, the Public Prosecutor's Office insists on covering up the complaints. (5)

1.2) Euronews, the shame of Rome in 9 languages

The Euronews service it was published in 9 languages, in the hope that every 'competent' political, administrative and judicial authority will assume its responsibilities and intervene effectively.

2) Feces and urine in Atac elevators, architectural barriers. The Fanpage investigation

Fanpage has in turn dedicated a noteworthy investigation to Rome, on the occasion of the European Mobility Week. The reporter Lorenzo Sassi followed the tracks of a wheelchair around the caput Mundi architectural barriers. (6)

Feces and urine in Atac elevators they are almost banal emblems compared to stations without elevators. And on the surface it is even worse, between impossible sidewalks, 20-25 cm high, which force you to make your way between cars and garbage, another plague of the capital.

3) #EuropeanMobilityWeek. Find the difference

The posters posted in Rome for the European Mobility Week, - like the one on the cover of this article, photographed in front of the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital, in the San Paolo area - on closer inspection they present a difference compared to the official poster adopted in Brussels, below.

What difference? In the Capitoline poster the drawing of the wheelchair is missing. Not surprisingly, in the light of the above. Those who live in wheelchairs - as they say in the jargon, in the popular houses of Centocelle with lifts often out of order - are 'graved alive'. Precisely because they cannot even leave the house.

Until when?

# égalité

Dario Dongo

Note

(1) Vanessa Ciccarelli. Architectural Barrier Elimination Plan (PEBA), 34 years late in Rome. Reportage. 27.3.20 Égalité

(2) Dario Dongo. Architectural barriers in Rome, the first videos of Égalité. 2.7.22. Egalité

(3) Dario Dongo. Life in Rome and Milan with a motor disability, the new videos by Égalité 13.8.22. Égalité

(4) Dario Dongo. Administrative elections 2021, disabled people and elderly people excluded 26.9.21. Égalité

(5) Dario Dongo. Rome, Genoa, Italy. Public transport, disability and discrimination. 6.12.21. Egalité

(6) Lorenzo Sassi. Lifts with feces and urine, non-existent ramps, inaccessible metros: Rome is not a city for the disabled. https://www.fanpage.it/roma/ascensori-con-feci-e-urine-rampe-inesistenti-metro-inaccessibili-roma-non-e-una-citta-per-disabili/ Fanpage. 15.9.22

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