Disability reform in Italy: the state of the art
EU Budget 2026: Welfare, Not Weapons
27th November 2025
Disability and Independent Living, EU Report
9 December 2025
La disability reform introduced in Italy with the legislative decree 62/2024 represents one of the most significant steps in the long journey towards a system of recognition and protection consistent with the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.
The new model goes beyond the purely medical-legal approach and introduces a review broader one that integrates social and psychological aspects. The crux of the reform remains the financial coverage of the financial rewards.
Disability reform, objectives
The reform under consideration aims to:
- simplify the disability recognition process;
- unify health assessment at the national level;
- reduce unnecessary revisions;
- strengthen integration with the Electronic Health Record;
- issue a single health certificate, usable for all services;
- promote theinterconnection of social and health services.
INPS will become the sole controller of the assessment, effective December 1, 2026, thus reducing the fragmentation and territorial disparities that have hindered access to rights for decades.
The basic assessment
The basic assessment introduces several innovative elements that allow us to move beyond the old, purely medico-legal model, integrating tools that measure the person's actual functioning.
The WHODAS 2.0 questionnaire
During the visit to the Basic Assessment Unit, for adults the following form is filled out: WHODAS 2.0, a WHO questionnaire that measures the impact of disability on daily life (mobility, relationships, autonomy, participation).
It is a tool that allows us to detect not only the clinical condition, but also the actual difficulties that the person meets since live, work, study and participate in social life.
ICF and ICD-9 codes
The new evaluation procedure uses two complementary international classifications:
- ICF (International Classification of Functioning). The WHO classification that describes a person's functioning, level of autonomy, and environmental barriers, allowing for a biopsychosocial assessment of disability;
- ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases). The International Classification of Diseases (ICF) is used to codify diagnoses and clinical conditions. While the ICF helps understand how a person experiences their condition, the ICD-9 identifies the underlying medical diagnosis.
These three tools – ICD-9 for diagnosis, ICF for functioning, WHODAS for practical impact – make up the new recognition model envisaged by the reform.
Socioeconomic data and economic performance
Users can declare the data needed to obtain financial benefits online (via SPID or CIE) through the 'Socio-economic data for disability benefits' service.
Alternatively, they can contact a patronage or authorized trade associations.
The individual life project
One of the pillars of the reform is the individual life project, which can be activated after the disability has been recognized. The project should:
- be personalized, shared and built together with the person and the family;
- involve local social and health services, schools, and work;
- be defined by the Multidimensional Evaluation Unit (UVM), which collects the needs and identifies the necessary interventions;
- overcome the fragmentation of interventions by integrating social, educational, health and employment measures.
The UVM includes the person with a disability (or guardian), a facilitator (if appointed), a general practitioner or pediatrician, health professionals designated by the Health Agency, a social worker/educator, and school or employment representatives.
Reasonable accommodation
Another key element of the reform is the so-called 'reasonable accommodation":
'1. In cases where the application of the provisions of law does not guarantee persons with disabilities the enjoyment andeffective and timely exercise, on an equal basis with others, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, reasonable accommodation, pursuant to Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, made in New York on 13 December 2006, identifies the measures and The necessary adjustments, relevant, appropriate and adequate, which do not impose a disproportionate or excessive burden on the obliged entity.
2. Reasonable accommodation is activated on a subsidiary basis and does not replace or limit the right to full access to the benefits, services and support recognised by current legislation.
3. The person with a disability, the person exercising parental responsibility in the case of a minor, the guardian, or the support administrator if empowered, has the right to request, with a specific written request, the public administration, public service providers, and private entities to adopt a reasonable accommodation, including by formulating a proposal.
4. The person with a disability and the applicant referred to in paragraph 3, if different, participate in the process relating to the identification of reasonable accommodation.
5. Reasonable accommodation must be necessary, adequate, relevant and appropriate compliance to the extent of the protection to be agreed upon and to the contextual conditions in the specific case, as well as compatible with resources actually available for this purpose.
6. In evaluating the request for reasonable accommodation, the possibility of accepting the proposal submitted by the applicant pursuant to paragraph 3 must first be verified.
7. The public administration In the final provision, it takes into account the needs of the person with disabilities, including through personalized meetings, and concludes the procedure with a reasoned refusal, where it is not possible to grant the proposed reasonable accommodation, indicating the accommodation according to the principles set out in paragraph 5.
8. Against the motivated denial of reasonable accommodation by the public administration, or in the cases referred to in paragraph 7, an appeal is permitted pursuant to the articoli 3 e 4 of Law 1 March 2006, n. 67.
9. The provisions of theArticle 5 of Legislative Decree 5 February 2024, n. 20, the right of the applicant and of the associations entitled to act pursuant to thearticle 4 of the law n. 67 of 2006, to ask theGuarantor Authority National Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to verify discrimination due to denial of reasonable accommodation by public administration and also to formulate a proposal for reasonable accommodation.
10. In the event of refusal by a public service concessionaire of the reasonable accommodation requested pursuant to paragraph 3, the applicant and the associations entitled to act pursuant to thearticle 4 of the law n. 67 of 2006, without prejudice to the right to take legal action pursuant to Article 3 of the same law, may ask the National Guarantor Authority for the rights of persons with disabilities to verify the discrimination for refusal of reasonable accommodation by proposing or requesting, including through the sector or supervisory authority, reasonable accommodations suitable for overcoming the critical issues encountered.
11. In the event of refusal by a private individual of the reasonable accommodation requested pursuant to paragraph 3, the applicant and the associations entitled to act pursuant to the article 4 of the law n. 67 of 2006, without prejudice to the right to take legal action Pursuant to the same law, they can ask the National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to verify the discrimination of refusal of reasonable accommodation.
12. The provisions of this article shall be implemented within the limits of the human, instrumental and financial resources available under current legislation and, in any case, without new or increased burdens on public finances.' (Legislative Decree 62/2024, Article 5-bis).
The ongoing experimentation
The reform is not yet active nationwide. The trial began on January 1, 2025, in nine provinces and was extended to nine additional provinces, including two autonomous provinces, on September 30, 2025. Currently, the following are in place:
- provinces under experimentation, where the new procedure is applied;
- provinces and regions not involved, where the traditional procedure remains in force;
- territories where recognition is already entirely the responsibility of INPS;
- territories with mixed systems, where both local health authorities and national social security institutions (INPS) operate.
La data collection In the experimental phase, it focuses on some pathological conditions considered to be the most representative: rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, bronchial disease, oncological diseases, type 2 diabetes, autism spectrum disorders, and multiple sclerosis.
Provisional conclusions
The reform is still in its experimental phase but represents a step forward in overcoming territorial inequalities in the recognition of the rights of people with disabilities. Its success will depend on the ability to coordinate services, resources, and skills, but above all on availability of financial resources To support individual life plans and reasonable accommodations. Fundamental human rights are therefore still tied to political decisions, which in Italy have so far been completely unfair to people with disabilities.
#Égalité, #PaceTerraDignità
Dario Dongo
Note
- Legislative Decree No. 62 of May 3, 2024. Definition of disability status, basic assessment, reasonable accommodation, and multidimensional assessment for the development and implementation of a personalized and participatory individual life plan. Legislation. https://www.normattiva.it/uri-res/N2Ls?urn:nir:stato:decreto.legislativo:2024-05-03;62
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
