Young people with disability: educational challenges for new inclusive spaces

The complexity of the present society presents many challenges for the new generations overall, especially for the young with disabilities. Disabled youngsters and their families find themselves devoid of projects to follow the end of the school years: the prevailing image is that the disabled youngster is an “eternal child” to be protected, or a “person to assist”, this defuses the capacity to “project” educative actions in the adult spaces of participation and inclusion. Disabled youngsters risk to live exclusively inside the family context or to be “parachuted” in institutions and communities; as the result of necessity, not as reasoned, shared or constructed choices made “with” and “for” the person. This contribution sheds light on the main pedagogic critical points that arise in taking care of disabled youngsters. It re-thinks strategically some of the articulations that construct a life project turned toward future and Quality of Life. In the same direction we propose some devices to support the future of young generations with disabilities, able to legitimise and promote the assumption of an adult identity, also in terms active participation and citizenship.