Like the street, with its wide sidewalk, a bright space has been at 24 avenue de la Porte de Clichy in the 17th arrondissement of Paris since last spring. Kiléma Le Lieu is a cultural, inclusive and unique third place, dedicated to people suffering from an intellectual disability and which is organized around a bookstore where they can find adapted works, in particular those in Falc (Easy to read and understand) from Kiléma éditions. The high ceilings and a surface area which stretches in length over 250 m2, give Kiléma Le Lieu volumes which blow like a wind of freedom. Its vocation seems to be imprinted in the walls: "to offer a place of culture, a place of work, a place of social life to people with intellectual disabilities and to all", says Cécile Arnoult, whose work it is.
With her husband Philippe Le Squéren, they are parents of Lucie suffering from Down syndrome for whom they imagined this inclusive space. During the day, we come to buy books, sit down to drink a coffee or enjoy a moment of conviviality, work, participate in a cultural workshop, an activity or an exchange which can also take place on the lower level which can be privatized. Some come to eat at midday. In the afternoon, a mother comes to do homework with her daughter and offers her a snack from the bar. Further on, an accountant who lives in the neighborhood works on his computer in this modular space which can be used for catering. Earlier, parents of children with disabilities stocked up on books, before having lunch and offering their services as future volunteers.
“See and be seen”
In Paris, “there are no places like ours at all,” notes Lucie’s mother. “There is no totally inclusive place of culture. It is the culmination of five years of work,” explains Cécile Arnoult who led the project. "Kiléma Le Lieu has 18m of facade. It's a place to see the outside world. People with disabilities see the outside world and are seen. See and be seen. Kiléma Le Lieu is a huge showcase where we mix everyone."
Soon his daughter Lucie and her classmates will come to practice new professions, between the café, the bookstore and "the space for exchange, work and training dedicated to inclusion, educational practices and support for education and medico-social professionals". "My daughter is 20 years old, continues Cécile Arnoult. Next year is her last year of school. From next September, I will organize a professionalization program with her school. In this context, we will welcome young people here, interns to whom we will teach trades or different tasks such as receiving books, specific to the bookstore, or welcoming the public which is transversal."
A place that we make our own
Mathis, 17, has already benefited from this approach. He came to Kiléma Le Lieu for a three-week internship completed last June. In the MRC professional baccalaureate (customer relations professions), he helped in the bookstore and in the bar kitchen. “I have problems with my hand. When I write, I get tired quickly,” he explains. When asked what ailments he suffers from, he talks about “dyslexia and ASD [autism spectrum disorder]”. “When I was told to do an internship in a bookstore, I said to myself that it was going to be rubbish. And in the end, I really liked it. When I’m with my tutor, at the bookstore, or in the kitchen, I learn a lot of things,” he confides about his internship. And at the bookstore, he discovered “quite a few books”, he who “doesn’t like reading”. From now on, he likes the books “a little more now”, especially those on sport that he found there.
The third place is a place where we learn and where we also work, like Laura who is a Falc proofreader at Kiléma Editions, based on the site. "For my daughter Lucie, at the end of her school year, this will be her place, confides Cécile Arnoult. We created Kiléma Le Lieu for her. She will have a place where she can work, where she can have drinks and meet her friends. She will have a place where she can buy books, cultivate herself through different activities initiated by people. We offer a space and people make it their own, whether they are associations which offer activities for people with disabilities, or people with disabilities themselves who are looking for something and who say to themselves that the place where we can do it is here."
“One and the same story, several ways of reading”
Morgane, 25, who suffers from cognitive disorders, is one of them. While looking for “a place dedicated to inclusion”, she had spotted Kiléma Le Lieu even before its opening. And it's the first place in Paris that meets his expectations. “I found a moment to discover this place. It’s practical, it’s not very far from my home.” Its advantages: “the fact that there is a bookstore, that the place is accessible to people with disabilities and that there are workshops”. Like the ceramics workshop that she narrowly missed because it was held the day before she was there.
The young woman, who benefits from a disabled adult allowance, is also looking for work with her professional administrative management baccalaureate obtained in 2022. "When you have a disability, working in a company is complicated. You don't get enough support." Morgane did not feel “welcomed” during her previous experience. “I felt left out. At the same time, people work and don’t always have the time to take care of a person with a disability. But it’s true that it bothered me a little and demotivated me.”
On the cultural side, the young woman found what she was looking for at the bookstore: Morgane found The Three Musketeers in Falc at Kiléma Editions. “I grew up in a family where culture is super important. It’s a classic of literature that isn’t accessible to everyone. Even in audio. I read but I have trouble concentrating. I get tired quickly.” With some 3,200 titles including "15 to 20% adapted editions", the bookstore is an Ali Baba's cave for all neurotypical people. “We formed the first circle at the back of the bookstore with editions adapted in Falc, for dys [specific language and learning disorders such as dyslexia or dyspraxia], tactile books, works in Braille, large print and audio books,” explains Cécile Arnoult, founder of Kiléma Editions on which the bookstore depends. And because "ultimately few titles are labeled 'adapted'", the collection has expanded to albums and graphic books without text.
“Then, little by little,” adds Cécile Arnoult, “we moved towards general literature because we want this bookstore, like the whole concept of the project, to rhyme with inclusion.” The slogan of the structure sums up the philosophy: “One and the same story, several ways of reading it”. “The more cards we give to people, the more everyone can have the same cultural and literary references,” argues Jules, the bookstore manager. “It’s a bookstore in which the adapted book is the norm and no longer the exception,” insists Cécile Arnoult, who believes that “the cultural rights of people with disabilities are completely violated.”
And these are not the only rights that Lucie's parents feel are being trampled on. More broadly, they denounce the societal approach to intellectual disability in France. “Intellectual disability is judged so differently that people's rights are not the same,” notes Philippe Le Squéren, an engineer by training who sold his company to create the Kiléma Endowment Fund, the financial arm of the Kiléma projects (publishing house and third place).
Cécile Arnoult and Philippe Le Squéren gave substance to Kiléma Le Lieu in order to show that an alternative was possible. “Reading and culture are the basis of this possibility of emancipation for people with disabilities,” argues the head of the Kiléma Endowment Fund. “We want to change the world,” he continues, “to change the image of intellectual disability by saying that the people concerned must have the same rights and that we must provide them with the same services and the same culture. But saying that is not enough if we do not adapt to them.” Lucie's parents also protest against "closed places" such as "IME (Medico-Educational Institute), Esat, nursing homes", structures of a medico-social course that they refused for their daughter.
“There is no way I would have my daughter live in a world other than the one I live in.”
Cécile Arnoult
“We have plenty of testimonies from young people who have gone from the traditional education system to EMI and who have regressed,” says Cécile Arnoult. “You have to be pulled upwards to rise. People with Down syndrome are, for example, sponges,” sensitive to the good or bad dynamics of their environment. “It is not the people behind these institutions who need to be called into question,” analyzes Cécile Arnoult, “but it is the institution itself.”
With Kiléma Le Lieu, Lucie's parents are looking for new allies in a battle that many patrons already support. Kiléma Le Lieu’s stated objective: to create a community. “The people who come there to eat a good pie or drink a coffee take a step that they are often still unaware of,” notes Philippe Le Squéren. Membership in the association that manages the place will be offered. In particular, it will offer priority access to the workspace. A contribution, among others, when the rent to be paid to the Real Estate Agency of the City of Paris (RIVP) for the place amounts to 90,000 euros per year: "much too expensive and too heavy when we are interested in a specific public and when we create, moreover, employment not only for people with disabilities", points out Cécile Arnoult. For now, as the cultural program for the start of the school year begins to unfold, walking through the door of Kiléma Le Lieu is a first step. Among other things "to try to change the presumption of incompetence associated with disability", according to Lucie's dad. “We are all human”, insists Philippe Le Squéren and “people with disabilities are part of the general population”, continues Cécile Arnoult.
