Independent living for persons with disabilities

Italian Law no. 112/16 introduced measures aimed at the construction of housing autonomy paths for people with disabilities in view of the time when they will no longer rely on the family support, the so-called “Dopo di Noi”. Anticipating the goal of deinstitutionalisation contained in the recent document “Guidelines on deinstitutionalisation, including in emergencies” published by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [1], the law promotes a new welfare model that places the person and his or her “Progetto di Vita” (PdV Life project) at the centre. From the law founding principles, this paper describes the research path initiated since 2017 by a national Committee set up to monitor the state of implementation of the law in the different regional and local realities, with particular reference to the experimental housing autonomy projects. Specifically, the reconnaissance and mapping of best practices for the independent living of people with disabilities is reported, with the aim of classifying and analysing the experimentations activated on the national territory in coherence with the law founding principles.