«True civilization is founded on the recognition of the centrality of the person, of solidarity, of fraternity and of collective responsibility toward those living in conditions of greater vulnerability. Even a person who uses a wheelchair and “does nothing” continues to live relationships, affections, thoughts, spirituality, memory, and remains a full part of the community». The quotation refers to a passage from the letter that the Guarantor for Disability sent to L'Osservatore Romano a few weeks ago. The Authority felt it necessary to firmly address the words spoken by journalist Massimo Giannini during a television appearance, in which he compared the government's pointless inaction to living in a wheelchair for twenty years without doing anything. Giulia Galeotti writes in this issue about the Guarantor Authority and the oversight and monitoring functions entrusted to it – of which this rebuke is just one example – and she underscores how language is «the first revealing mirror of thought».
We need to keep paying close attention to the words we use, as the advertising campaign by CoorDown – discussed here by Matteo Cinti – also reminds us, and we must stop using disability as a point of comparison to describe things considered negative. At the heart of this issue is our focus, once again, on life planning for people with disabilities. This time we look closely at one of the legislative tools designed to support the self-determination of people with disabilities: supported administration [amministrazione di sostegno]. This legal framework, introduced in 2004, is examined by lawyer Laura Versace, who outlines its regulatory features as well as the questions it raises about «the meaning of collective responsibility». That same responsibility that Marta Sodano, a person with Down syndrome, describes and calls for when she asks for true recognition: «I am because we are».