Author biographies

Laura Alčiauskaitė, Alexandra König, and Tally Hatzaki

Ms. Alčiauskaitė serves as the TRIPS Project Coordinator for the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL). She has more than 12 years of experience in the fields of disability, social inclusion and accessibility. Ms. Alčiauskaitė is a PhD candidate in psychology at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania. Her doctoral thesis is focused on positive psychology and discusses psychological resources and their impact on the acceptance of disability among persons with mobility disabilities. She has also worked as a human rights activist and youth trainer since 2014, devoting her efforts to raising awareness of human and social rights for young persons with disabilities.

Alexandra König is a Human Factors scientist at the Institute of Transportation Systems of the German Aerospace Center, located in Brunswick, Germany. She has a Master’s degree and a PhD in Psychology. Since 2016 she is working in the field of traffic and transport psychology. Her main interest lies in the human-centered development of new mobility systems. She is engaged in several research project that aim to create barrier-free mobility for all. Doing so, she analyses qualitative and quantitative user requirements for making mobility more inclusive.

Tally Hatzakis co-leads the EU-funded project TRIPS project that drives accessibility innovation towards inclusive urban transport. The project brings together transport experts and persons with disabilities in 7 EU cities to co-design accessible mobility solutions, set innovation priorities and agendas and make joint commitments towards systemic changes in the sector.  She is a strategic thinker and effectively communicates the ‘bigger picture’. She has led foresight research on the ethical and human rights challenges relating to smart technologies in various domain fields for projects funded by EU, ESRC and EPSRC.  

Hanan Zaafarani

Ms. Zaafarani is a PhD candidate at the Geomorphology Lab for Environment and Society; communication, entrepreneurship and development at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech. She holds a diploma in educational sciences and didactics and is a member of the Center for Inclusive Education and Social Responsibility at Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech. Ms. Zaafarani has coordinated and supervised a number of research projects, including a national sociological study on the social effects of traffic accidents and a national study on the initial phase of a survey of Moroccan families in cooperation with the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior.

Radoš Keravica

Mr. Keravica is a disabled researcher from Serbia who is a PhD candidate and teaching fellow at the University of Leeds, Centre for Disability Studies in the School of Sociology and Social Policy. He holds a master’s degree in human rights law from Central European University. His doctoral research project uses socio-legal analysis and focuses on disabled children’s participation in health-care decision-making in the context of impairment-related elective orthopedic treatments. It further explores the relationship between the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in the area of child participation. He serves as a Board Member of the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL).

Ikhlas Al Sawwaf

Ms. Al Sawwaf is an activist in the field of disability. She obtained her master’s degree in special education, specializing in intellectual disabilities, from King Saud University in Riyadh in 2014. Ms. Al Sawwaf started her career as a teacher at the Intellectual Education Institute for Girls in Jeddah, later becoming its director, then was an educational supervisor and a member of the inclusive education team with the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Public Education Development Project. Ms. Al Sawwaf also served as a member of the advisory committee for the preparation of reference guides for intellectual education in the Ministry of Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She is currently working as Director of the Special Education Department in the General Administration of Education in the Jeddah Governorate. Throughout her career, Ms. Al Sawwaf has had the opportunity to author a number of books and manuals in the field of education for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Aida Ramadan and Racha Ramadan

Ramadan is an Assistant Lecturer in the Economics Department, Faculty of Economics and Political Science (FEPS) at Cairo University. She earned her master’s degree in economics in 2022. The topic of her master’s dissertation was “Assessing the employment of people with disabilities in the labour market: The case of Egypt”, under the supervision of Racha Ramadan, Associate Professor of Economics at FEPS, Cairo University. Ms. Ramadan worked as a research assistant in a Saudi-funded project entitled “Prospects and challenges of the new forms of work: Freelance, flexible work, and platform work” in 2022. She is now a PhD candidate at FEPS, Cairo University. Her research interests include labour economics and economic development.

Racha Ramadan is an Associate Professor in the Economics Department, Faculty of Economics and Political Science (FEPS) at Cairo University and a Research Fellow with the Economic Research Forum (ERF). She earned her PhD in economics in 2010 from the Toulouse School of Economics. Since then, she has worked as an economic consultant for different international organizations including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). She is a Fellow in the Summer Program in Social Science (SPSS) at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a member of the Associate Editorial Board of NEW MEDIT: A Mediterranean Journal of Economics, Agriculture and Environment. She has had several papers published in peer-reviewed journals such as Review of Income and Wealth and The Journal of Development Studies. Her research interests include applied micro-econometrics on poverty, food security, gender and human development in Egypt and other developing countries.

Rahma Al Kalbania

Ms. Al Kabania is Head of the Department of Students with Disabilities Affairs at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in sociology from Sultan Qaboos University. Ms. Kalbania has had the opportunity to work with persons with disabilities for more than seven years in a number of policy making committees for students with disabilities. She worked on a proposal for a national screening programme for the early detection of disabilities in addition to the creation of an introductory disability guide for students with disabilities in higher education institutions. Ms. Kalbania has also had the chance to present papers on issues concerning persons with disabilities at a number of conferences.

Lazar Stefanović

Mr. Stefanović is a PhD candidate in the Department for European, International and Comparative Law at the University of Vienna and a researcher at the Vienna Forum for Democracy and Human Rights. In the past, he served as a civil society representative at the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Serbia and worked in an advocacy non-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion of social inclusion and the human rights of children and adults with disabilities.

Meelis Joost

Mr. Joost is a member and former vice-chair of the national Sustainable Development Commission in Estonia. He has been a member of the European Economic and Social Committee, an advisory body to the European Parliament and the European Commission. He is well acquainted with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), as he drafted the English version of the Estonian civil society shadow report to the CRPD committee, which reviewed Estonia 2021. Since 2001, Mr. Joost has worked for the national network of persons with disabilities, he has also been involved in the work of a consultancy providing assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises and developing cross-border contacts. His work revolves around human rights, changing attitudes towards persons with disabilities, and caretaking issues, with a focus on diminishing the burden of care.