Antonella Candiago, a 27-year-old from Italy, is a wheelchair user residing in Brussels. With a background in European politics, including internships at the European Parliament and a policy traineeship at Inclusion Europe, she passionately advocates for gender equality and disability rights, particularly focusing on the intersection of gender and disability.
In this episode, we take a look at her activism journey, community involvement and challenges, as well as her expectations for the upcoming European elections.
Antonella Candiago, a 27-year-old from Italy, is a wheelchair user residing in Brussels. With a background in European politics, including internships at the European Parliament and a policy traineeship at Inclusion Europe, she passionately advocates for gender equality and disability rights, particularly focusing on the intersection of gender and disability.
In this episode, we take a look at her activism journey, community involvement and challenges, as well as her expectations for the upcoming European elections.
Welcome to the new episode of our podcast series on political participation. My name is Florian Zann and I am policy officer at the European Network on Independent Living in what episode today is called Voices on the Ground. With me today is Antonella Diego. She is disabled and the Gender equality and disability rights advocate. And Schneider has done internships at the European Parliament and at Inclusion Europe. Welcome, Antonella. Thank you, Florian. How are you today? I'm very good, thanks. How are you? Oh, I'm also good. I'm happy about doing a podcast. My introduction was quite brief. Do you want to tell our listeners a bit more about yourself? Sure. I am Antonella. I am Italian, but I'm currently living in Brussels and as you said, I did two internships in the European Parliament and another one at Inclusion Europe. And I am myself a person with disability as I'm a winter user. I'm very interested, as you mention, in the intersection of gender and disability. So I advocate for these rights that I would see. You completed two internships at European Parliament. That is quite impressive. But the European Parliament is a large organization. Where exactly did you interned and what did you do? During my internship in the European Parliament, I specifically followed the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. This was my main interest, as I believe women are already missing in leadership and decision making positions and of course, women with disabilities in politics. It is the situation is even worse. So sometimes there are like physical or even legal barriers, and sometimes many cultural stereotypes. So during my experience in the European Parliament, I could see and learn more about the importance of having policies in the EU that encourage the participation of people with disabilities, and especially women with disabilities in politics. What would you say are the specific challenges women with disabilities face compared to men with disabilities? Well, they are for sure more likely to face hate speech when they are public and political figures. So this and I would say many stereotypes related both to gender and to disabilities. Many women are often not taken seriously or they are infantilized. And so their voices are not really heard. And also, I would say sometimes they are considered not for their skills and their knowledge and expertise, but just for the fact they are disabled. And I think another common thing in general are people with disabilities, but especially women with disabilities have to deal with is the so called inspiration for them. So, for example, I had to deal with this a lot in my past and present just means that people and women with disabilities are often depicted as heroes when they carry out daily and normal activities, and they are often seen as inspiring for disabled, non-disabled people and these as some consequences, I believe, in terms of self-confidence, especially for women, because maybe we tend to doubt about ourselves and ask if our ideas and solutions are really appreciated because they are valid or just because the other people see our disability and see us as like inspiration and symbol too. While you were at the committee, did they work on any legislative projects which would be would, would help to change that. I.e. work more on violence against women? So including women with disabilities, for example, the case of for sterilization and not particularly I didn't work on something specifically related to political participation of women with disabilities, but I did this during my other policy traineeship at Inclusion in Europe. Yeah. What what what was the most interesting project you worked on during your various internships? During my last internship at Inclusion Europe, I could conduct this research project on women with intellectual disabilities and political participation, and the results would be shared soon. And it was very interesting because I could talk with both policy officers and MEPs with disabilities or involved in the fight for disability rights. And yeah, I wanted to raise awareness on the challenges and discrimination. People with disabilities and women with disabilities face, especially ahead of the next US elections. What motivated you to become a disability advocate and also to to be involved in EU affairs? I don't really know what exactly inspired me. I think it was quite natural and automatic. I started advocating for women's rights, but also for LGBTQ rights and of course disability rights. And I think human rights are all related and interconnected. But I felt disability rights have always been left behind. So, for example, sometimes it's just not cool to talk about disability, and this is something that needs to be improved. And for example, when it comes to feminist movements in Europe, I think during the past the challenges and discrimination faced by disabled women were not considered at all. And still, nowadays, even if we talk about intersectional feminism, I believe this is still something a bit marginal. So like in the same way as, for example, feminist movements forgot about black women, they also forgot about disabled women in. As a woman with a disability, i.e. I want to advocate for a change in this social and then let's see. Another thing that inspire me is simply the fact that if no one is advocating for your rights, you probably have to start doing that by yourself. And then, of course, it's like really important for me to find good allies and to not stop fighting just for your own rights, but to remember that human rights are not something among which you can just pick and choose the rights you like or don't like to support. So this also inspired my interest in in geopolitics and human rights in general. I totally agree with what you say about. Yeah, the problems with the feminist movements and disability rights. We are in conflict with them about the EU agenda or Dr. CARE with the EU strategy or the feminist movement correctly. They focus on the rights of the carers but don't quite consider the rights of the few persons cared for also in institutions, for example. Yeah, I believe it's really a marginal topic nowadays, so I would like to raise more awareness on this and to analyze more how we can have an impact on policies that may be apparently for some decision makers or policy officers. This policy, these policies have no effect on women with disabilities, but actually they have. So I think it's it's really important and it's also really important to involve women with disabilities during all the decision making process, because when they are not present, the result is very bad and we see it very often. And how come you're interested in EU affairs specifically? Many people say the EU has not or shouldn't have a lot of competence when it comes to disability. Wouldn't it be more effective towards work at the national level? I think it's important to work at all levels local, European and international at the same time. Of course, it's important to work a lot at local and national level because, for example, the many issues comes from there. I mean, especially, I think at the local level or like in the rural areas, there's lack of women with disabilities and people with disabilities among the decision makers. So that's a big issue. But I also think we have to work a lot at the European Union level because when a country or a little area are not, they don't have the resources or they are not willing to improve the situation. The European Union can intervene. I'm also a fan of European integration. So the same page step with you. You are disabled. You live as a disabled person in Belgium, in Brussels. Do you have access to support? Not from the Belgian state yet. I'm trying to get information about that and yeah, I didn't do that because the bureaucracy, sometimes it's really long and exhausting. So I'm still receiving and I can still receive support from the Italian state. I receive disability, other ones and then I live with the support of my personal assistant. So, yeah. Oh, this is really interesting. The Italian state, they support their citizens. They are brought with disabled citizens to continue supporting them. So far, yes, but not. Not for them. They're alive. If I decide to move permanently to another country and or if I. There's another problem with the salary, because people with disability, if they receive higher job salary, they lose the invalidity and no one. So that's another issue. Though. But this is great that they allowed us for for a limited period. This is actually, I would say, a good practice example because it's a problem The we talked about to set the context of the European disability card that this is into the mobility of disabled people, that when they go abroad they cannot keep their their disability support. And your personal assistance. Is this also provided by the Italians? No, it's not. No, it's paid personally because this is in Italy. The situation is not very good in terms of funds for personal assistance. And also there are many differences between the North and the South of Italy. Okay. Are you from the north or the south? I'm from the north, but still completely. Okay. It's what you worked at the European Parliament. Did they give you good accommodations? Um, well, I received everything I needed when I was working within the parliament, but for example, for me, it was very difficult to find accessible accommodation in this city, Brussels, because most of the places are not accessible at all. So this was complicated. And indeed I had to start my internship one month later because I couldn't find anything. So I think like within the institutions, it's fine. But still there should be. There's something that need to be improved because you can like invite people with disabilities to apply for traineeships. But then then you also have to think about the fact that the environment is not accessible. So for example, I know in I think in like in Luxembourg, there are, for example, some accommodations for trainees that would be great, especially for people with reduced mobility. Okay, okay. The internships you did where they're paid. Yes, they were paid. I took unpaid internships. Okay. And together with your allowance, could you then was it affordable to get housing? Was the housing affordable? No, it was not affordable because, I mean, I can't be independent from the economic point of view. I still need the help of my family because if you look for an accessible accommodation in Brussels, it seems like you're looking for that luxury. So of course the salary help and the disability allowance help it, but it's not enough. Okay, so you had to pay out of pocket. It's little. Yes. It's not good. Um, okay. Let's go a bit to your disability policy. So you had had some good insights into how it was going. For your point of view, what are the most important challenges at the moment? Do you mean challenges. In EU disability policy or for the EU? Which which issues do you think they should tackle? Well, I would say first of all, the voting accessibility, because looking at both the EU and national elections, I think that important improvements should be made. For example, to make the polling stations accessible and the buildings too. And also another big issue is the lack of electoral material and voting sheets. For example, in Braille or easy to read language. And these barriers result in like the exclusion of a big part of citizens from democracy and also, for example, looking at the situation in my country, Italy, I think an important step should be to guarantee also the possibility to vote digitally, because these would enable people with disabilities, and especially people with reduced mobility, to vote easily and independently from home. And also, I think this would not only benefit people with disabilities, but in general it would increase the political participation of all citizens. And yeah, for example, in Italy, many residents tune it. Students cannot afford to travel back home to vote. So, like reforms of this kind would help have proven and this is just an example of how accessibility actually benefits everyone and not only people with disabilities. So I think there are so many technologies and digital tools that can be used to improve political participation and guarantee real democratic electoral processes. But still, in many EU countries, electronic vote is not allowed. So I think this could be important. Have you had a chance to look at the the European electoral law? They are they are working on. Have you heard about this? Are you a bit familiar with the file of the European electoral law? I mean, I didn't work during my internship at the European Parliament. I followed something when I was working at Inclusion Europe. So, for example, I learned more about accessibility for people with intellectual disabilities, especially in terms of the language and like to make the information more accessible for them too. And also another another important fight related to despite, I think, is to tackle the fact that in still some European countries, people with intellectual disabilities under guardianship have no right to vote or to stand for for elections. So they are basically excluded from democracy. Yeah. Now, the European electoral law is actually trying to change that, but there's no agreement at the Council so far. Yeah, we have to see how this all plays out. Well, you already already mentioned active political participation, active participation in the elections. Voting of disabled people. You as a as a wheelchair user, do you encounter a lot of problems in accessing going to police? Are the accessibility usually. Yeah. Like in the building in my case is accessible even if many, many years ago it wasn't. But the polling stations, they're not so accessible for me, for example, because all the tables are very high. So it's quite difficult for me. I managed, but it's difficult. So it's not accessible. Are you allowed to bring your personal assistant to help you? No, I've never requested this because I managed to do that. But for other people that need other kind of it could not be accessible. Maybe. And maybe also they don't know about the different possibilities they can request. So I think also many people just say, okay, I will not vote and and that's it. You're probably familiar with how things are going and it's as the artistic legal period in Italy for, uh, for some disabled people. I think there are more like practical barriers, I would say. So maybe from the legal point of view, the situation is more or less okay. But then from when you look at the practical and the reality, this kind of things are difficult, especially in local areas. I think for example, the physical accessibility is always an issue. Yeah. Okay. Then there is of also passive political participate, Haitian being elected or not elected being elected. Um, they are at the moment all these seven disabled MEPs at the whole European Parliament. How do you feel about that? I feel very disappointed, of course. And yet during my research project conducted during the interview with Inclusion Europe, I could also talk with these MEPs about this. I think as I mentioned before, that when, when people with disabilities are not present in decision making positions, then the result is it is very bad, especially when policies regarding disabilities need to be taken. So I think it's really important to encourage more people with disabilities, especially young people with disabilities, to participate in in politics. But I also think it's important to provide the necessary tools and to be ready in terms of accessibility, because we can't just encourage people with disabilities to be involved in politics. We need to think about accessibility and we have to think about it before and it can't be an afterthought, you know? What do you think? How can we convince what can we do to get more disabled people to become politicians? Well, first of all, I think it's really important to educate people to have more conversations with disabled people, to really listen to their voices so, for example, I think communication and social media can play a crucial role. And like starting from inviting people with disability to speak more in advance in conferences, in podcasts. So this is, this is important. And yeah, I think we can't deny that Still, no religion and disability rights is quite poor. So I believe we need to really talk more and openly about this. Yeah, I think social media are playing and can play an important role as a role in raising awareness. Could you imagine becoming a politician yourself running for office? I generally prefer to act, but behind the scenes, so I think I like to advocate aloud for disability rights and human rights. But when it comes to the job, I like to be involved in politics, but more like US policy officers. Now I understand the public exposure. This is no easy thing to deal with yet. What are your plans now? Did you internship into law? Did you did so many internships? I would say not other internship anymore. Now I'm currently involved in some projects involving both gender equality and disability rights, and I also recently joined the Brussels binder, if you know this organization as a volunteer, but I'm mostly now looking for a job, possibly in something related to disability, gender, politics. And yeah, I'm planning to stay more in Brussels. So I'm looking for a job here. I'm sure. I'm sure you will find on the major disability organizations there quite regularly. They have job ads, so I think you find something. Okay, we are heading we are approaching the end of the podcast. Are there any other message? Are there more things you would like to tell to our listeners? Maybe just another thing related to food in the next few elections? Just a thought. I hope to see like more contents related to disability in like electoral campaigns. So I would like to see concretely accessible elections in all the EU countries and a great participation from people and young people with disabilities. And I hope in greater allyship and solidarity also from non-disabled people, because I think knowing you're not like alone in your fight and you have allies besides you is very powerful. So yeah, I would like to conclude with this. That's a good message. Keep fighting. You're not alone. You should definitely come to the Freedom Drive next year. That's always a great way. Okay. Thank you for this very interesting conversation. We at the end of the episode, thank you for listening. See you soon.