ISTITUTO FRANCESCO CAVAZZA
120 YEARS OF TEACHING
A Few Historical Notes
Founded in 1881 in Bologna, the Istituto Francesco Cavazza, until the end of the nineteen thirties, had accommodated young blind students mainly from the Province of Bologna, providing them with a basic education, and preparing them to work in trades that were common in those years (rebottoming chairs, making brooms and brushes, etc.).
From 1930 to 1970, the Institute experienced a major change: students started to come from anywhere in Italy, and were offered various avenues of studies: professional trades, as well as studies in humanities and music.
In 1977, the Regional Centre for Production and Distribution of Educational and Cognitive Material for Blind Persons was established, following a special agreement with the Region of Emilia Romagna.
In 1979, thanks to a fortunate partnership with IBM, a new avenue opened for teaching professional blind electronic developers, and ensuring their integration into the workforce.
In 1982, courses for telephone operators began to be offered, and qualified students easily found employment, also thanks to laws on mandatory employment.
In 1992, the National Computer Centre for Production and Distribution of Computer Aids for Blind Persons was established, following a special agreement between the Institute and the Italian Blind Union.
Today, the Institute develops numerous activities relating to education. Programs for computer analysts and technicians are provided, as well as courses for telephone operators, technicians for insurance and financial services, and technology-related courses such as Windows operating systems and other applications. The Institute also organizes numerous information and awareness activities bringing people together to discuss issues relating to visual impairment, such as the 1995 conference on "Technological Research in Bologna: Ideas and Proposals for Citizens", and the competition "Writing in the Dark" in 2001.
About Francesco Cavazza
The Cavazza Institute was founded in 1881 under the initiative of Francesco Cavazza. His philanthropic spirit led him to help and assist the needy, to be compassionate towards those who were vulnerable, to offer fatherly interest to the disadvantaged, together with the contribution of individuals who were more financially endowed. His initiative had the objective of taking blind persons away from a state of abandonment, and provide them with education and training, which would substitute the blind as subjects of admiration for their accomplishments as students and citizens for the blind as subjects of pity.
The boarding school's development was in parallel with the Institute's own undergoing changes, updating objectives and programs. This process corresponded with the developments in typhlology, to Italy's social changes, as well as to blind persons' own growing desire for achievement.
The avant-guardist experience born and developed at Cavazza did not remain only within its walls. The Institute was in fact considered a lab for the blind movement, and provided an important contribution to its growth. It became a driving force at the national level in regards to other Italian institutes. This was well demonstrated on the occasion of the Bologna Conference, organized by Francesco Cavazza in 1910, where he stated his objectives for the years to come, and anticipated the motivations which later led, right after the war, to the foundation of the Italian Blind Union.
Here were Cavazza and his friends, sons of their era, people with a liberal and moderate spirit, deeply permeated with universal values of christianism. They were in their time innovators and promoters of charitable actions, people who made available their wealth for human and social purposes. Next to the founder, Francesco Cavazza, were so many renowed figures from some of Bologna's reputed families, who knew how to establish the necessary foundations in order for the Institute to insert itself into the social, civil, and cultural fabric of the city.
And there were those who were cared for, as it was then said, whose difficulties were being monitored. They experienced the dire need to win over marginalization, the profound desire to live on one's own means, and the determination to pass from the condition of being cared for to the role of protagonists. In fact, over a thousand blind youth from all over Italy, and some from outside the country, have received from Cavazza training and emancipation, discovering, in the love for studying and working, a reason to live. Some have reached prestigious positions like Augusto Romagnoli, the first blind teacher in a public school.
The Cavazza Institute has a rich history impregnated with a spirit of charitability and solidarity. It is the story of individuals who, not matter what their respective experience was, worked strenuously to build their own existence with dignity, to become architects of their own destiny, just like anybody else.