Conference Program

The contribution approaches Ageing with Disability (AWD) not as a specialist topic, but as a critical lens. When duration truly enters the scene rather than remaining a biographical detail, core educational categories reveal their normative character. Development, conceived as cumulative progression; education, framed as preparation for adulthood; autonomy, equated with independence: these concepts hold only as long as the life course appears linear. AWD disrupts this linearity and compels theory to make explicit what usually remains implicit, the assumption that adulthood represents stability and dependency merely an incident to be corrected.

AWD compels us to acknowledge that vulnerability is not a deviation from a presumed “normal” course of life, but an ordinary dimension of human experience that may re-emerge or intensify along trajectories rarely unfolding in linear ways. From this awareness, it becomes difficult to treat autonomy as a boundary separating those deemed “fit” to participate in social contexts from those excluded. Such a distinction cannot be demonstrated or validated objectively; rather, its substance takes shape within the web of relationships and material conditions surrounding the person.

When discontinuity and fragmentation within service systems weaken support structures, choice may remain formally recognized yet lose substance in lived experience. It becomes a procedurally sound formulation that struggles to withstand the pressures of everyday life. Self-determination, though strongly affirmed in normative frameworks, risks remaining unprotected, asserted at the level of principles, yet fragile precisely at the moments when it most requires safeguarding.

AWD unsettles a long-standing and largely unexamined assumption, namely the idea that development coincides with an orderly progression in which competencies accumulate over time, as if life followed an upward trajectory. When attention shifts to lived realities and their dynamics, this image begins to falter and life paths reveal interruptions and discontinuities. At that point, attempts to reduce development to measuring what has been “accumulated” become inadequate, and a new urgency emerges: to understand what enables continuity to be sustained, and how transitions can be navigated without losing the supports holding experience together.

What ultimately makes the difference is not so much the increase in skills, nor their certification, but the possibility of remaining within the spaces that shape one’s life, dwelling, relationships, education, work, participation, even when circumstances fracture or reconfigure.

As long as the implicit normative horizon presupposes a linear, autonomous, stable life trajectory, largely free from disruption, vulnerability, dependency, ageing, and illness tend to be regarded as exceptions to be managed, or as problems to be contained or corrected. AWD redirects attention precisely to this point: not to what is declared, but to what endures over time. It compels us to ask whether a person is able to remain within social contexts, to make decisions, to participate, and not to be excluded when life becomes more fragile.

We present a small-scale pedagogical experiment focused on a visit to a virtual museum, designed as an inclusive educational environment that encourages participation, recognition, and democratic belonging among older adults with disabilities or social vulnerability. Within the field of Special Pedagogy, the project reimagines the museum visit as a community-based educational practice where access to cultural experiences becomes a means to counteract isolation, passivity, and marginalization. The theoretical framework is based on a bioecological perspective, which posits that development and participation are shaped by the dynamic interaction between individuals and their relational, institutional, and cultural environments (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). From this view, the virtual museum serves as a meso-level pedagogical space linking personal biography, digital mediation, and community life. This idea is further supported by Berthoz’s concept of simplexity, emphasizing the need to create learning environments that make complex concepts accessible through adaptive, meaningful, and embodied mediation (Berthoz, 2012). The intervention is also guided by the neuroeducational and embodied approach developed within the ECS framework, which highlights the interconnectedness of body, cognition, affect, and context in inclusive learning (Gómez Paloma & Damiani, 2021). The virtual visit extends beyond digital reality to become an embodied-relational experience, structured through guided interaction, narrative activation, and reflective participation. Reflecting on simplex didactics and educational technologies reinforces this perspective by emphasizing the pedagogical value of digitally mediated environments in fostering active participation, meaningful interaction, and the development of transversal skills, rather than merely offering passive consumption (Di Tore, 2020). Within this framework, and consistent with inclusive pedagogical approaches rooted in relational care and participatory accessibility, inclusion is viewed not as a compensatory response to deficits but as an ecological and existential condition related to the quality of educational settings, recognition of subjectivity, and the capacity for genuine participation in shared cultural life (Corona & De Giuseppe, 2017; De Giuseppe, 2024). At the policy level, the project aligns with current European, international, and national frameworks that acknowledge the educational and social importance of cultural participation. "Culture and Health report: Time to Act" advocates for stronger integration of cultural policy, wellbeing, and public inclusion, while the WHO scoping review "What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being?" (Fancourt & Finn, 2019) provides solid evidence that arts participation significantly contributes to quality of life, social connectedness, and overall wellbeing. In Italy, this approach is further reinforced by the recent alignment between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Health. Methodologically, the pilot involves a small group of older adults and may include younger participants in a structured intergenerational activity. The process includes pedagogical reception, brief digital support, an accessible and dialogic virtual visit, and a final co-narrative exercise. The expected outcomes focus on strengthening cultural agency, digital confidence, intergenerational exchange, and recognizing cultural access as a practice of democratic citizenship in later life.

With the progressive embedding of generative artificial intelligence in social and institutional life, the question of who retains the epistemic agency necessary to participate authentically in democratic processes acquires growing pedagogical relevance. This contribution examines the intersection of ageing, disability and AI from the perspective of Special Education and philosophy of education, arguing that older persons with disabilities represent a privileged vantage point from which to observe a structural dynamic, particularly in contexts of digital access to healthcare services, welfare provision and public information, where the immediate availability of AI-generated responses may reduce genuine cognitive engagement, producing a condition in which discursive fluency tends to replace the active construction of knowledge and judgement.

Drawing on the concept of algorithmic citizenship (Di Tore et al., 2024) and on the foundational insight of McLuhan and de Kerckhove that media function as cognitive environments reshaping the conditions of knowledge (de Kerckhove, 1995; McLuhan, 1964), the paper argues that generative AI reconfigures the socio-technical conditions within which democratic participation, self-determination and the construction of life projects become possible or constrained. When AI systems anticipate needs, pre-formulate choices and smooth the cognitive friction necessary for deliberation, they risk replacing inclusive design with forms of structural cognitive delegation— a subtle yet decisive erosion of the right to think and decide.

The analysis is situated within the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, 2006), which recognises legal capacity and political participation as non-negotiable dimensions of human dignity throughout the life course. In this context, Special Education is called to move beyond functional accessibility towards what the paper conceptualises as epistemic accessibility: the design of AI-mediated environments that support older persons’ capacity to question and reinterpret their understanding of the world. This reorientation is developed in dialogue with Latour’s actor-network theory (2005) and with the Foucauldian notion of dispositif (1980), in order to examine how AI systems constitute regimes of visibility that may open or close the space for deliberation.

From a methodological standpoint, the paper adopts a theoretical–conceptual approach, developing its argument through a critical engagement with philosophical and pedagogical literature as well as science and technology studies, in dialogue with perspectives on algorithmic explainability in education (Selwyn, 2019; Williamson, 2019) and with disability studies addressing life projects and citizenship in later life (Priestley, 2003; Simplican et al., 2015).

The paper concludes by proposing pedagogical principles for the design of AI in contexts of disability in later life: the preservation of deliberative space, the recognition of embodied cognition as a constitutive dimension of democratic agency (Varela et al., 1991), the promotion of intergenerational digital solidarity, and the recognition of education in later life as an infrastructure for critical participation. Against a reductive assistive paradigm, inclusive education for older persons with disabilities is thus reinterpreted as a site of epistemological and political resistance: not an additional layer of welfare provision, but a pedagogical condition for democratic quality.

This paper reflects on the paideutic value of narrative logos in aging as a tool for promoting democratic citizenship. The heuristic-hermeneutic focus is on the educability of the person (Spina, 2024) in old age and on storytelling as a pedagogical device (Ricoeur, 2002; Demetrio, 1996; Spina, 2018), capable of both giving “voice” to life stories (Bruner, 2002, 2006) and fostering invigorating intergenerational exchanges.

Starting from some preliminary considerations, centered on Lifelong Learning and the Pedagogy of Active Aging (the process of developing and maintaining functional capacity, which enables well-being in old age), we come to understand the elderly as a “human heritage of memories and historical-socio-cultural roots” (Cianfriglia, 2024, p. 11). Considering active aging a “scenario of participation, activity, and generativity” (Baschiera, Deluigi, Luppi, 2014, p. 13), a possible path for accompanying the elderly can be found in educational programs rooted in narrative logos. From this perspective, we consider the narrative experience as a paideutic practice that, at the same time, takes the form of recognition (Ricoeur, 2005; Spina, 2025) and a practice of citizenship. Through storytelling/whether recounting others’ stories or one’s own, an individual is able to recognize their own history, reinterpret the meanings of aging, and assert their presence in public and community spaces (Arendt, 2016). It should also be noted that, in confronting the fragility of old age, the spoken word fosters a fruitful dialogue with younger generations, offering them memory and testimony of times past. By countering forms of social invisibility (which often also characterize aging with disabilities), storytelling becomes a fundamental element in supporting processes of authentic communication, participation, recognition, and inclusion; dimensions that underpin democratic citizenship.

Title: Life Planning and Care Relationships for the Elderly

Daniela Persechini

Adjunct Professor at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio; d.persechini@unicas.it

This article explores the relationship between special education, neurodidactics, and care policies as they pertain to the elderly population, with a particular focus on the life plan as a tool for active inclusion and on democratic citizenship as an indispensable value. In a demographic context undergoing profound transformation, rethinking educational and care models for the elderly represents one of the most urgent challenges of contemporary pedagogy. The progressive aging of the population in Western countries demands a profound reflection on the social, educational, and healthcare structures that govern the lives of older adults. In this scenario, special education is called upon to move beyond traditional boundaries to rigorously and creatively examine the educational, relational, and identity-related needs of older adults. This is not merely a matter of care or rehabilitation, but of recognizing the full educational subjectivity of the elderly: their capacity to learn, participate, make choices, and contribute to collective life. Longevity, far from being exclusively a biomedical issue, emerges as a pedagogical and political phenomenon. Quality of life in old age depends increasingly on access to inclusive educational settings, the availability of supportive care networks, and the recognition of citizens’ rights even during periods of greatest vulnerability. Special education for the elderly offers a new and urgent approach to life planning. Conceiving a life plan for an older person, even in conditions of frailty or disability, means recognizing that every stage of life holds potential, desires, and rights that deserve to be addressed. Building a shared life plan requires the professionals involved to possess skills in deep listening, narrative facilitation, and co-design with the individual and their family and social network. In this way, the care relationship—when guided by pedagogical principles—becomes both an educational act that values the individual and promotes their participation (countering the passivity typical of traditional care models) and a political and pedagogical act that defines the kind of community we wish to be.