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Articles/Articoli

No. 2 (2025)

Women with disabilities and Life Project: Personal Assistance and support for motherhood

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/ess2-2025oa21240
Submitted
ottobre 8, 2025
Published
2025-12-11

Abstract

Women with disabilities face numerous challenges in exercising their parental rights, including the inaccessibility of gynecological health services and the lack of parenting support services designed to address their specific needs. This contribution reflects on the Individual, Personalized and Participatory Life Project with attention to the types of support it can provide. Specifically, the paper examines the role of personal assistance, conceptualized as a form of support capable of improving the quality of life of mothers with disabilities and fostering their processes of self-determination. The current gaps in social, psychological, and educational services, however, confront both special pedagogy and policy makers with the necessity of designing new modes of intervention and care for parents with disabilities. Therefore, the paper concludes by proposing inclusive and pedagogical trajectories to enhance parental support for persons with disabilities.

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