2022 was a year of great importance for the Aniridia Italy association. First of all, in June, finally and after four years, a national meeting was held in person. In fact, the 2020 meeting was held completely digitally and in order not to lose the habit, this year’s meeting, held in Rome on 18 and 19 June, was redo hybrid and available also online.
Thanks to this process of phygitalization of the event, called Aniridia’s Roots, it was then possible to undertake another new path, unique of its kind at global level. For the first time ever, in fact, thanks to the editing of the video recordings of all the conference sessions, an on-demand e-learning area has been created, called Aniridia’s Education Corner, and which anyone can access to learn more about the association and on the world of this rare genetic disease. From the genetic to the clinical approach, also passing through advice on everyday life, the first eLearning area in the world on aniridia offers its users a space where they can get information in an innovative and always available way, 24 hours a day.
Among the activities of the association, in addition to the complete and inclusive makeover of the institutional website, the new year also brought many new projects, such as the “Cuore di mamma” fund raising campaign, created together with the Telethon Foundation and dedicated to purchase of equipment for the hybridization of the national meeting and also to allow 2 Italian doctors to participate in the sixth European conference on aniridia. In addition to this, then, the international projects “TC more opportunities for visually impaired young people” and “SEEING THE INVISIBLE: Inclusive digitalization of low vision students in school education” – realized respectively with Views International and RedTree (among the other international partner) – have contributed to bringing Aniridia Italia’s commitment to the international level as well, allowing its members to gain new experiences in the field of teaching, event organization and educational accessibility. These two projects will have a long-term path which will offer numerous opportunities for growth, especially for the younger generations.
From digital learning to traditional education and the ability to create new partnerships, therefore, the activity of the Italian association does not stop and continues to offer new ideas for growth and improvement, such as the new youth project dedicated to “Mutual aid group” that, through a WhatsApp group, gathers together on a digital level, every first Tuesday of the month, all the young people of the association to discuss the challenges, opportunities, doubts and, sometimes, even the tricks to face their daily lives in the best way possible. An experimental project, able to give everyone the opportunity to express themselves quickly and easily, gathering everyone’s opinions and ideas to grow together looking to an increasingly innovative and successful future.