In Italy, we keep talking about rights as if they were the same for everyone, yet one need only look at where a person with a disability lives to realise that this is not the case. The divide between north and south, when it comes to services, support and real opportunities to build independence, is not a mere administrative detail; it is a structural divide that alters people’s quality of life and, with it, their ability to study, work, get about, earn an income and participate fully in society.
The issue is often treated as a social one, as if it were confined to the realm of welfare; in reality, it also directly concerns the business world, because when part of the country offers less support, less continuity and fewer tools to sustain an independent life, it is also reducing the economic potential of those who are trying to build that life for themselves. In Italy, disability faces not only personal or cultural barriers, but also an unequal distribution of rights, and this distribution ultimately translates into an unequal distribution of opportunities.
When you look closely at the figures, this is exactly what they show. According to Istat data presented at the hearing of 28 May 2025 before the Parliamentary Commission for the Implementation of Fiscal Federalism, per capita expenditure on municipal services and support for people with disabilities under the age of 65 amounts to €2,740 in the north-east and stands at €1,070 in the south, a gap of approximately 2.6 times. Even for an essential service such as social transport for people with disabilities, including school transport, the gap remains significant, with €87 in per capita expenditure and 4 users per 100 residents with disabilities in the north-east, compared to €38 and 2.1 users per 100 in the south.
Put less technically, this means that the same circumstances do not lead to the same rights in real life. They lead to different paths, different possibilities and different struggles, and make actual access to services and opportunities more precarious.
Not because a law formally distinguishes between first-class and second-class citizens, but because the system, in practice, continues to distribute services and resources unevenly. It is a less obvious difference than others, but no less serious for that.
The point here is not merely how much a region spends, but what that spending makes possible. Where there are more services, a person with a disability is more likely to be supported towards independence, to ease the burden on their family, to maintain continuity in their education or therapy, to get about, to work, and not to have to negotiate every single right as if it were a favour. Where, on the other hand, services are weaker, the family all too often ends up filling gaps that the public system fails to address, and everything else falls by the wayside: freedom is curtailed, planning for the future is put on hold, and even the possibility of participating in the labour market in a credible and sustained manner is compromised.
In business terms, this situation would have a very simple name: systemic distortion. If two people with the same needs, the same desire to build independence and perhaps similar potential are given vastly different resources simply because of the area in which they live, then we are not dealing with a natural difference between local authorities; we are dealing with an institutional framework that generates inequality. And inequality of this kind is not confined to the social sphere; it permeates the world of work, productivity, access to opportunities and even the possibility of doing business.
Istat has long highlighted significant regional disparities in local welfare services, in the accessibility and quality of essential services, with wide variations even in the practical ability to access key facilities, support and services. This means that, in Italy, disability continues to depend too heavily on where one lives, and a right that depends too heavily on geographical location is a right that is simply not yet fully guaranteed.
That is why the reassuring narrative of local autonomy is no longer enough; it is not enough to say that every local authority is doing what it can; nor is it enough to make vague references to inclusion. If there are no levels of protection that can actually be enforced across the country, the risk is that citizenship for people with disabilities will continue to function as a form of citizenship with variable geometry, where the principle is national but the effectiveness of the right remains local, intermittent and uncertain.
The political issue, then, is also a very practical one. Italy is not yet a unified country when it comes to disability, because levels of access to services, support for independence and assistance towards participation remain too varied from one region to another. And this is not a technical nuance; it is a wound that weighs heavily on people’s dignity, on families’ freedom and on the country’s ability to avoid wasting skills, energy and opportunities.
If we are to tackle this issue seriously, we must stop treating disability as a side issue in the social sphere and start viewing it for what it really is: one of the clearest indicators of a country’s institutional and economic quality. Where services are fragile, employment becomes more fragile too. Where the local community fails to support, talent is lost. Where rights are eroded, so too is the possibility of transforming a person into a full participant in economic life. That is why today’s demand cannot be vague. We need binding national equity, consisting of clear responsibilities, consistent resources and levels of protection that cannot be left to the mere vagaries of local budgets. Because the same condition cannot continue to generate different opportunities depending on the region, and because a country that accepts this disparity is not only leaving behind a section of its citizens, it is giving up a part of its own future. (photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash)
Note to the reader: the author is vice-president of LADI, the Free Association of Disabled Entrepreneurs
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©