(che non e' un insulto — anzi)

Come capita durante i traslochi delle famiglie non troppo provviste di quattrini, la Rat-Family ha fatto il solco sulla via dell'IKEA per arredare la nuova casa. E li', tra code multiple, sgomitate nella folla, ricerche affannose in magazzino, assegni staccati e polpette svedesi, It ha scoperto il "Paradiso dei Bambini", ovvero il baby-parking e la sua vasca con le palline gialle e blu. Per un po' di volte abbiamo cercato di dissuaderlo, temendo che potesse essere difficile da gestire e da controllare in quelle condizioni. Ieri pero' ci siamo fatti coraggio, abbiamo spiegato la situazione e la condizione di It alla gentilissima animatrice del baby-park, in modo che sapesse come comportarsi — e lo abbiamo messo a sguazzare felice tra le palle dell'IKEA. Risultato: un'ora di assoluto divertimento, in cui It ha finito per farsi imitare da un paio di bambini presenti (saltelli e sfarfallamenti autistici compresi!) — e in cui e' risultato decisamente meno scatenato e incontrollabile dei piccoli neurotipici presenti. Con un'attenzione discreta e gentile delle animatrici, evidentemente ben istruite sull'accoglienza dei bambini con bisogni speciali — a dimostrazione del fatto che si puo' evitare abbastanza facilmente di creare situazioni discriminatorie. Capito, signori di Carrefour?

P. S. Per quanto riguarda la vicenda raccontata da Black Cat, restiamo in attesa di vedere quali azioni positive assumera' Carrefour per rimediare: a noi due parole di scuse non bastano. Proprio perche' ci e' chiaro che e' *assolutamente possibile* non discriminare.

IKEA has balls
As it often happens to not-too-well-off families, moving to a new house means to make endless trips at the nearest IKEA store to buy new furniture. In this process, It discovered the wonders of IKEA's baby parking — and insisted to be allowed to go in. We were reluctant at first, because we feared he would not be controllable in that kind of situation. At last we gave in: we explained our son's condition to the lady at the baby parking, she was very concerned and welcoming — and off he went to play with the yellow and blue balls in the pool. End of story: one full hour of great amusement — and he even taught some other boys a few distinctive autistic jumps and hand-flappings. All in all, our It has not been more difficult to control or more restless than any NT kid. The people fron IKEA have been caring, discreet and attentive — which demonstrates that it *is* possible for a big retail store to create non discriminatory conditions for children with special needs. Just what Carrefour did not do on this occasion (*).
(*) Answering a request from HJ, let me try to summarize what happened at the Assago (Milan) Carrefour supermarket. During the local date of the "Disney Cars Tour", Black Cat took his (autistic) son to see the show and to get some photos with the characters from the movie. As the boy was not quick and responsive enough to adapt to the photographers requests, he has been uncerimoniously shoved away from the photo booth ("Move on, we can't wait for you — we've no time to spare — just go away!"). When his mom protested, a clerk from Carrefour snapped back: "But if he's not normal, why do you take him among the people?".
Black Cat wrote a protest e-mail to Carrefour and published it on her blog, prompting a mass reaction from the Italian blogosphere (over 700 comments and 250 posts so far). Carrefour has replied with some (IMO) lame and vague apologies — and a phone call. Still waiting for further developments: in the meanwhile, we've stopped shopping at the local Carrefour store.