The Disability Marketing and the Cultural “Product”. Italian Experience and Propositions for International Contexts

Differences among people have to be considered as an opportunity, even in the field of economy. Thiswould contribute to socially and professionally enhance the condition of people with disabilities. Due toan increase in life expectancy and medical advances, there are currently many people with disabilities.Disability creates significant burdens for public expenditure and for private enterprises including peoplewith disabilities in their staff. Disability management facilitates the inclusion of people with disabilitiesin the production system, by considering diversity as an opportunity. There have been significant initiativesfrom museums and other cultural institutions, as well as publishing houses. Studies on this subjectshould therefore multiply in order to encourage the development of specific opportunity/cost measurementstandards regarding the inclusion of disabled people in working processes and investments on productsthat, planned for all, favor disabled and non-disabled. In this new context, the education and culture ofpeople with disabilities play a crucial role. In this chapter, the author focuses on the Italian experiencewhich is assumed to be useful in broader contexts.