Technology, Accessibility and the Right to Autonomy: AbilNova’s Perspective

At the VIPPSTAR Consortium Meeting held in Rovereto on 11–12 May 2026, AbilNova, a social cooperative based in Trentino specialising in sensory disabilities, shared its perspective on the role of technology and research in supporting personal autonomy.

Drawing on its experience in rehabilitation, education and assistive technologies, AbilNova reflected on issues closely connected to VIPPSTAR's objectives: the importance of developing solutions around people's real needs, involving users in the design process and bringing together different areas of expertise.

Their contribution, deliver by AbilNova Vice-President Andry Nardin and reported below in full, offers a broader perspective on technological innovation, exploring how research, accessibility and human relationships can come together to improve quality of life.

Good afternoon everyone, 

and thank you for this opportunity to exchange ideas during this intense day of work within the VIPPSTAR project. 

I would like to begin by briefly telling you who we are and what we do.

AbilNova is the reference center in Trentino for sensory, visual, and hearing disabilities. 

We are a social cooperative founded in 2008 from the direct experience of blind and visually impaired people. Over time, we have grown into an organization recognized not only in the Trentino region but also at the national level.

Our work spans many different but deeply interconnected areas: rehabilitation, education, assistive technologies, psychological support, training, accessibility, awareness-raising, and research. 

Every day we work with children, adolescents, adults, older people, and families, striving to build personalized pathways that place the person at the center - their abilities, their aspirations, and their right to autonomy - in order to achieve the highest possible quality of life, which is different for each individual.

Among the services we offer are visual and functional rehabilitation, specialized support throughout the school journey, psychological assistance for users and caregivers, training for professionals and teachers, technology training, consulting on the accessibility of physical and digital spaces, cultural and sports activities, and community-wide awareness initiatives.

For us, disability is not only about the person who experiences it directly. 

It is also about the environment they encounter every day. 

Working on quality of life therefore means working on society, culture, services, and relationships.

The name AbilNova brings together two words: ability and innovation. 

“Ability” because we always start from what a person can do — their resources and potential — and not only from their difficulties. 

“Innovation” because we know that needs constantly evolve, and we must imagine new tools, new strategies, and new ways of building autonomy.

Our slogan is: “Oriented toward the future.” 

And I believe this also describes well why we are here today.

For AbilNova, research is not something separate from daily work. 

It is an integral part of how we operate. 

We have always participated in provincial, national, and - in recent years - international projects, because we believe that exchanging experiences and building broad networks is essential to continue growing, improving, and keeping pace with technological, social, and educational changes.

Today, technologies - and artificial intelligence in particular - offer enormous opportunities for everyone, including people with sensory disabilities. 

But we also believe that technology alone is not enough. 

It must be studied with expertise. 

Tested with care. 

Developed ethically and with a real purpose. 

And above all, it must be created through the encounter of different professional perspectives.

We need multidisciplinary teams: doctors, educators, technicians, therapists, researchers, psychologists, developers, teachers - experts who can contribute their viewpoints and skills to build truly effective projects, grounded in smart objectives and capable of producing tangible results.

But more than anything, we need the direct involvement of users from the very beginning of the design process, which means not designing for people, but with people.

This approach is central to several initiatives we are currently developing. 

In recent months, we have been collaborating with an intern from the University of Oslo, Andrea Avalli Bezzi, on a project dedicated to the relationship between technology, touch, and experience. 

Through 3D printing, laser cutting, and digital design, we are developing tactile games, accessible educational tools, and orientation and mobility supports for people of different ages, needs, and abilities.

The underlying idea is to use touch as a tool for knowledge and for building relationships with space and objects. 

In this way, technology stops being something cold or distant and becomes a concrete, shared, accessible experience. 

Here too, every object is created through listening and co-design with visually impaired people. 

Because accessibility should not be a final adjustment added “afterwards.” 

It should be the starting point of the project.

Since the end of 2024, AbilNova has been part of ENVITER — the European Network for Vision Impairment Training Education and Research — which connects organizations working in the field of visual impairment across Europe. 

Joining this network has been very important for us, as it allows us to share good practices, compare intervention models, and build joint projects at the European level.

In spring 2025, we participated for the first time in the General Meeting in Skopje, North Macedonia. 

They were intense days filled with meetings, exchanges, and reflections on topics that are central for all of us today: innovative technologies, artificial intelligence, accessibility, awareness-raising, and services for autonomy. 

And it is precisely in this context that VIPPSTAR fits.

VIPPSTAR is an extremely important project because it addresses a fundamental issue: the need to build personalized and continuous support for children and adolescents with visual impairments throughout their development. 

The project uses AI-based tools to develop age-specific interventions: 

• for very young children, through tele-rehabilitation and early monitoring; 
• for children, through personalized serious games for visuocognitive enhancement; 
• for adolescents, focusing on autonomy, body image, physical activity, and nutrition.

Among the tools developed are telemedicine platforms, intelligent avatars to support daily routines, computer vision systems for nutritional support, and international research and surveillance networks.

But what we consider truly valuable about VIPPSTAR is not only the technological aspect. 

It is the cultural vision behind it. 

A vision that seeks to create personalized, accessible, and genuinely person-centered tools. 

A vision that brings together research, clinical practice, education, technology, and quality of life. 

And this integration is essential.

We also collaborate with FBK - Fondazione Bruno Kessler - on projects related to assistive technologies and the development of AI applied to sensory disabilities. 

Furthermore, through Tiflosystem, Italy’s leading company in assistive technologies — of which AbilNova has acquired the majority of shares — we work every day to make technological tools increasingly accessible and truly useful in people’s daily lives.

Another significant experience we recently completed is the Erasmus+ Flex Picture Ebook project. 

A European initiative aimed at making digital picture books accessible to children with visual, hearing, and cognitive disabilities. 

The illustrations were redesigned with different levels of readability, personalization options, animations, and multisensory supports. 

For us, it was a beautiful project because it demonstrates that accessibility does not mean simplifying or removing experience. 

It means creating different ways to access the same experience.

And I believe this is a fundamental point. 

Because ultimately, our goal is not only to develop advanced technological tools. 

Our goal is to enable people to fully participate in life. 

To move. 

To study. 

To work. 

To read. 

To play sports. 

To travel. 

To cultivate interests. 

To discover passions. 

To build relationships. 

To be active citizens.

This is why we believe that investing in research is essential. 

But we also believe that no technology can replace the value of human relationships, personalized pathways, and autonomy built step by step together with people.

We are convinced that autonomy cannot be downloaded from a device. 

But we also know that technologies - when carefully designed, properly introduced, and effectively used — can provide invaluable support. 

Autonomy, the result of a mix of human and artificial elements, is built over time through experiences, appropriate tools, listening, and trust.

And above all, we believe that every area of society must be involved. 

Because people with sensory disabilities have the same right as anyone else to inhabit the world in all its spaces. 

This makes it essential to train, inform, and raise awareness across the community: schools, professionals, companies, institutions, citizens. 

Only knowledge allows us to build concrete accessibility, respectful and empathetic relationships, and truly inclusive strategies.

Or perhaps - going even beyond the concept of inclusion - as Fabrizio Acanfora suggests, we should increasingly speak of coexistence of differences. 

Not adapting someone to a system designed by others, but creating contexts in which all differences can fully exist with equal dignity.

And perhaps this is the most important challenge ahead of us. 

Not only creating intelligent technologies. 

But building intelligent communities.