Co-creation events – NewWorkTech Project
As part of the project NewWorkTech – From the margins to the masses: Standard practices and innovative uses of technology in augmenting different abilities of people in the world of work – CNR-IRPPS held four co-creation events (both in-person and online) between September and October 2025 to gather opinions and ideas on the various technological interaction needs of people with disabilities in the workplace. The events were organized and moderated by Tiziana Guzzo and Maria Chiara Caschera and involved various stakeholders, including people with disabilities (intellectual, visual, physical, and hearing), associations, educators, technology experts, and policymakers.
The European NewWorkTech project aims to explore how technology can improve the job skills of people with disabilities (sensory, physical, and intellectual). The main objective is to translate this knowledge into practical results: technologically advanced solutions, new theoretical frameworks, ethical issues, policy recommendations, and practical knowledge accessible to the community at large.
The first co-creation event took place on September 23, 2025, involving people with intellectual disabilities, operators from AIPD (Italian Association of People with Down Syndrome), operators and representatives of ANFFAS (Italian Association of People with Intellectual and/or Relational Disabilities) and Séfora Impresa Sociale Anffas, the Disability Manager of the Bank of Italy, the CNR Prevention and Protection Unit, and the University of Copenhagen.
A group of workers with visual impairments was involved in the second event on September 25, 2025, with local representatives of UICI (Italian Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted), technology experts from S. Alessio Margherita di Savoia (Center for Visual Disability Services), the CNR Prevention and Protection Unit, the “Augusto Romagnoli” State Institute in Rome for the specialization of educators for the visually impaired, and the Disability Manager of the Bank of Italy.
The third co-creation event, held on October 7, 2025, was attended by people with physical disabilities, FISH Lazio (Italian Federation for the Rights of People with Disabilities and Families), the Center for Autonomy and Self-Determination, the University of Copenhagen, the CNR Prevention and Protection Unit, and the Italian National Institute of Health (National Center for Innovative Technologies in Public Health – TISP).
Finally, the fourth co-creation event took place on October 16, 2025, involving several people with hearing impairments, the Kairos Association, the ISTC-CNR Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, the Disability Manager of the Bank of Italy, and the CNR Prevention and Protection Unit.
During the events, through a participatory design process “with and for” people with disabilities, participants provided concrete ideas, needs, and proposals on the use, limitations, and challenges of technology in the world of work.
The feedback received will contribute to the definition of guidelines for the development of more accessible and inclusive technologies that truly respond to the needs expressed by users, in compliance with the fundamental principle: “Nothing about us without us.”
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