HISTORY

ASPHI has existed for over twenty years.

Its founder was Giovanni Zanichelli, who in 1979 was managing director of the Data Centre Services of IBM in Bologna (Itally). It is thanks to him that the first training course for blind computer programmers was set up at the Istitute for the Blind Francesco Cavazza of Bologna. At the time it was a revolutionary initiative, the first of its kind in Italy and with few precedents in the world. Within that context, it was an audacious bet at the time to put a blind person in front of a computer monitor and have him working like everybody else.

ASPHI as an organization was constituted a year later, as the businesses organizing the training course, as well as other organizations who actually hired the first blind computer programmers, decided to join forces, aiming to train young disabled people in information technology.

Initially, ASPHI's activities were tied to an employment aspect. Eventually, through the years, initiatives were progressively extendeded to different kinds of disabilities, after visual impairment, they moved on towards deafness, mobility impairment, learning disabilities and multiple disabilities.

At the same time, in the course of years, activities expand and they start to involve other aspects of a person's life. Apart from employment, ASPHI is beninning to cultivate an interest in schooling and education integration, personal authonomy, disability awareness and other issues.

New branches develop and so do points of contact and activities. even out of national contexts, especially with European Projects.