Introduction

This book offers a complex and multifaceted understanding of disability by recounting and reflecting the experiences gained within the European project RISEWISE: Women with disabilities In Social Engagement, Horizon 2020, MARIE SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE RESEARCH AND INNOVATION STAFF EXCHANGE (RISE) 2015. By collecting a multidisciplinary set of contributions, many of which are conceived and developed adopting a gender perspective, it shows how the goal of full citizenship is still a challenge for many disabled people, especially women. At the same time, however, it aims to propose new reflections, methods and spaces for the inclusion of these people, starting from the recognition that disability is not a destiny, but rather the product of
the interaction between personal impairments and contextual (i.e. social) conditions.