ANNUAL REPORT 2025

The Independent Living Institute (ILI) works to promote opportunities for people with disabilities to gain more personal and political power, self-determination, full participation and equality through information, education, advocacy and project activities.

Independent Living is a movement of people with disabilities, an ideology and a philosophy with basic principles of self-determination, equal opportunities, equal rights, self-respect, full participation and empowerment. Independent Living is based on human rights, in particular Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its General Comment no. 5. There, the right to self-determination and participation in society and the right to choose where and with whom someone wants to live is defined, as well as the right to community services and personal assistance.

In 2025, ILI endeavoured through its work in several projects to achieve its goals and visions, but the year has also been characterized by major transitions for the organization. After the three-year Swedish Inheritance Fund project Mutual Integration and the Right to Work (RTA) ended in the spring, a serious risk of redundancy arose. To prevent anyone in the workforce from having to be laid off, several people voluntarily and in solidarity chose to reduce their working hours.

To secure the organization's future and rebuild resources, great focus and much working time during the year was spent on developing ideas, anchoring, formulating and submitting new project applications to various funders. The intensive application work bore fruit and we are pleased that ILI during the year has been granted two new, three-year projects from the Swedish Inheritance Fund. One is the Decision Support Project My life, my choice! – The right to support to decide for oneself, which started in April 2025, and the other is Disabled Refugees’ Stories - Adabi, a sustainable structure for migrants' storytelling, which was granted during the autumn with a planned start in February 2026.

The year also brought a change in ILI's leadership. On September 1, 2025, Emil Erdtman took over as the new Director. He thereby took over the baton from Jamie Bolling, who after many successful years as Director now transitions to leading the organization in the role of Chairman of the Board.

The structure of this annual report is as follows: 1) project activities, 2) other ongoing activities and information about the institute, including lists of events, news articles, etc. carried out or produced during the year, as well as personnel, board and funding.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Assistanskoll

Assistanskoll provides information, analysis, statistics, guides and advice to assistance users, their families and personal assistants in the choice of assistance provider. Personal assistants are informed about salary levels, collective labour agreements and terms of employment. LSS administrators can via Assistanskoll provide information to assistance users and their families.

Assistanskoll was started in 2007 with support from the Swedish Inheritance Fund until 2010. Since then, the web service has continued to increase in content and reach. Assistanskoll keeps the general public updated on the changes that are taking place in the legislation, the political developments around personal assistance, case law and market developments. For example, we monitor which parliamentary motions are made on the subject of personal assistance and how much the parliamentary parties want to invest in personal assistance in their budgets.

At the end of 2025, 158 providers participated in Assistanskoll's comparison service (154 non-municipal and 4 municipal). In addition to this, 43 organizers who have not provided information are listed. Assistanskoll's website had 560,000 page views in the year 2025 (604,000 in 2024). The number of visitors was 310,000 (compared to 320,000 in 2024). This exposure makes Assistanskoll's website and newsletter an interesting platform for the advertisers that cover Assistanskoll's running costs.

Assistanskoll's newsletter has achieved a market-leading position in monitoring the development of personal assistance in Sweden. Our articles and other information are often cited. The newsletter reaches approximately 3,500 email addresses. The target groups are personal assistance users, their relatives and personal assistants, assistance providers, disability organizations, LSS administrators, officials at government agencies and politicians.

Examples of what has happened at Assistanskoll during the year:

• Provider profiles: The profiles of the personal assistance providers were adapted for mobile phones and began to show information from the Swedish Companies Registration Office, for example salaries to the CEO and board and dividends to shareholders.
• Automation and search optimization: Assistanskoll automated the fetching of statistics from Statistics Sweden (SCB) and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency and optimized content via Google Search Console.
• The newsletter: The newsletter comes out more often, two letters per month instead of one, and advertisements are shown in blocks in the text instead of in the right column to improve visibility on mobile phones.
• News articles: 148 news articles have been published on the website.

My life, my choice! – The right to support to decide for oneself (Decision Support Project)

The project My life, my choice! is a three-year project driven by ILI with support from the Swedish Inheritance Fund. The project started on April 1, 2025. The target group is primarily people with intellectual or neuropsychiatric disabilities, as well as older people with disabilities. The project's aim is to strengthen the target group's self-determination and empowerment as well as with methods for decision support complement and improve the current system with substitute decision-making regimes (god man and förvaltare).

The project's main goal is to build an activity with decision support groups - a group of people who are close to the main person. It can be parents, siblings, friends, care-givers and even current substitute decision-making persons. The group should as far as possible implement the will and wishes of the “main person's” (the person in need of support) to strengthen the individual's empowerment. The group should be able to replace or complement a “god man” (legal administrator). Decision support groups have already existed for about 30 years in Canada and Australia and are called Microboards there, as well as in Norway where they are called Beslutningsstøtteråd.

Another goal is to run study circles aimed at people in the target group. Above all on different themes regarding self-determination. The first study circle, named "Who decides?", started on November 26 in Farsta with participants from the user association Inre Ringen Stockholm who are entirely composed of people with intellectual disabilities plus a support person. In the study circles, situations from the participants' everyday life are brought up for discussion. "Who decides?" can function as a preparation before starting one's own decision support groups. More study circles are planned for, among others, older people and people with neuropsychiatric diagnoses.

In 2025, the project focused on a start-up, network building and on developing and adapting the concept to a Swedish context, as well as starting to involve the target group in study circles. The methods include collaboration and networking with target group organizations, international exchange of experience and collaboration with researchers.

Knowledge development: In order to share good experiences and draw inspiration, the project has established international contacts. Digital meetings have been held with organizations in Canada (Vela, which originally created the Microboards concept), Australia and Norway. Their models and experiences of decision support have been important for the project's learning process. Summaries of how their models work have been produced to be published in an easy-to-read version.

The project has also taken advice and lessons learned from the Inheritance Fund project "Pass the power on" in Uppsala, which conducted study circles with a similar target group. The study association Vuxenskolan contributed its experiences of working with the target group and shaping study circles. As well as what is needed to make them part of the study association's range.

The website and information material: During the year, a website has been created and continuously filled with content. The project has produced two different digital and printed information brochures, one about the project in general and the other about decision support groups. This both in easy-to-read and "difficult-to-read" (standard text). A reference group meeting was held on October 21 with participants from, among others, FUB, Misa and Extraordinary - inclusive persons from the target group.

In summary, the project My life, my choice during 2025 has laid a strong structural and knowledge-based foundation for its work, started the first study circles with the target group and successfully started building the network with disability rights organizations and knowledgeable key people - including researchers. This is required for decision support groups (microboards) to be able to be established in Sweden.

Disability Rights Defenders (DRD)

The project activities continued until June 2025, with funding from Bente Skansgård's Independent Living Fund. Disability Rights Defenders (DRD) – is a network that disseminates and deepens legal expert knowledge about rights for people with disabilities. The overall aim is access to rights on an equal basis with others. By mutually sharing legal knowledge between lawyers, disability rights organizations, law schools and people with disabilities, the ability to use the law as a tool is strengthened. The project has built up and administered the Facebook group 'Disability Rights Defenders' which has over 2,700 members. In 2025, talks have been held with the European Network for Independent Living (ENIL) about taking over the administration of the network as they have better conditions to run it further and also to strengthen it at the EU level.

RTA - Mutual Integration and the Right to Work

The project Mutual Integration and the Right to Work (RTA), with support from the Swedish Inheritance Fund, was a three-year project that ended in March 2025. The project built further on the experiences from the previous project Disabled Refugees Welcome (DRW), but with a focus on work. The project's aim was to improve the integration process and increase employability among migrants with disabilities, as well as to overcome barriers that exist for the target group to enter the labour market on equal terms with others.

During the project's final months in 2025, the main focus lay on concluding the counselling efforts, carrying out the final conference and compiling the project's lessons learned in final reports. In addition to reports to the Swedish Inheritance Fund, the project produced a more popularly written report named The dream of a job in a new home country - this is how it became reality via the project the Right to Work.

Even after RTA formally ended, the staff continued to share the project's observations and results through lectures, including for an informal network of lawyers in disability rights on May 20 and for the Equality Ombudsman (DO) on June 2.

Advice and support: Counselling was a part of the activities all the way to the end of the project, and new people from the target group continued to make contact for support during the final phase. The work consisted of navigating and guiding individuals in systems surrounding asylum, migration and disabilities. If necessary, referrals were made to relevant actors, such as anti-discrimination bureaus. Because the need for support from the target group is still high, the counselling activities continue to a limited extent even after the project's end, now within the framework of the ongoing work in DRW (Disabled Refugees Welcome) Support Center for migrants with disabilities.

Disabled Refugees Welcome – Support Center (DRW Support Center)

DRW Support Center works to strengthen the situation for migrants with disabilities in Sweden. The activities offer counselling, guidance and support to people who often face major barriers in contact with society's various systems. The support center also functions as a platform for networking, knowledge dissemination and training efforts aimed at both the target group and various actors in society.

The target group for DRW Support Center is migrants with disabilities – a group that often finds itself in a particularly vulnerable situation. Many face double or multiple barriers: partly challenges linked to migration and establishment in a new country, partly barriers linked to disability, lack of accessibility, language barriers and limited knowledge about rights and support measures. DRW Support Center's work therefore aims to increase participation, empowerment and access to information and rights.

In 2025, the support center was run with funding from the Grant Foundation (DHR). The activities have included counselling and individual support, group activities and peer support. The number of individuals who received support in 2025 is 66 people, with a total of over 200 cases. Support seekers come primarily from the Middle East, Africa and Ukraine, but also the USA. The questions concern the Swedish system, work, education, housing, health and more. Regular digital and physical meetings were held with a focus on peer support.

A newsletter has been an important tool to reach out to the target group, collaborative partners and other interested parties with information about the activities, current issues and developments in the area. Disabled Refugees Welcome's website is a central channel for the support center's work.

Several collaborations connected to the support center have developed during the year, including participation in Karolinska Institutet's education for occupational therapists and participation in a research project on crisis preparedness in Europe (SONAR cities) led by KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) and the Swedish Defence University, the project's aim is to strengthen European cities' crisis management and resilience to crises and disasters.

During the year, collaborations were also developed with several other actors working with migrants and people with disabilities to develop the support center's future operations. On November 27, a roundtable discussion was arranged for relevant collaborative organizations concerning strategies and reception of migrants with disabilities. This led to an application for financial support for 2026, but also to the activities developing into several new projects in various ways promoting rights for migrants with disabilities.

Ratzka.se

ILI's founder Adolf Ratzka passed away in 2024. In 2025, Bente Skansgård's Independent Living Fund financed the project Ratzka.se, which is about preserving and digitizing Adolf Ratzka's legacy by gathering and finalizing his texts, articles, memoirs and films on the website Ratzka.se. Adolf started the work on the website himself in 2020 by gathering his own texts, articles, interviews and films, but he never completed or published the collection. During the year, the site was completed, which constitutes a significant collection of his work. Among the published material are Adolf's completed memoirs, including the depiction of his trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, 1968.

Adolf Ratzka Memorial Fund for Migrants with Disabilities

Adolf's family decided that memorial gifts should go to "The Adolf Ratzka Memorial Fund for Migrants with Disabilities", which the Independent Living Institute is administrating. Applications and payouts are handled in two application rounds per year.

The year began with an online memorial ceremony in January, and in total around SEK 150,000 was collected in donations. A steering group was formed which established the fund's guidelines and decided on two annual application rounds. In August, the first grants were approved and paid out, and the donors were thanked. Ten migrants with disabilities received financial support that changes their everyday lives. Examples are computers, mobile phones, gym cards, travel cards, glasses and batteries for assistive devices. Application round No. 2 has a deadline in February 2026.

HHF project on the historical development of the Swedish assistive technology system

The project carried out an investigation and mapping of the historical development of the Swedish assistive technology system. This resulted in a printed publication (We got a spin on it: voices from the history of assistive technology). The project was financed by the Disability History Association (HHF), which in turn received support from the Grant Foundation (DHR) and the Norrbacka Eugenia Foundation. The result was presented at HHF's annual meeting seminar on April 24 and Design Days in Sundsvall on May 23 and internationally in Cyprus on September 12. Applications for research funds were made in various constellations to the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Kamprad Foundation and the Anders Hultman Foundation.

MARLENE – Mobility, Accessibility and Rhythms of Everyday Life in Towns and Neighbourhoods

MARLENE is a 3-year European research collaboration in which ILI has an advisory role regarding rights for people with disabilities. The project is included in the idea of the "15-minute city", meaning to promote an inclusive and sustainable urban planning and public transport. The project includes case studies in the Czech Republic, Estonia and Sweden. The project is financed by the Swedish Energy Agency.

K2-TRIPS

After the conclusion of participation in the previous TRIPS-project, ILI worked during 2025 on two chapters for an anthology on the digital society where our chapters deal with obstacles and future solutions for accessibility in public transport for people with disabilities, publication 2026/2027.

OTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE ACTIVITIES AND THE INSTITUTE

Several previous projects and services have continued operations to varying degrees and have websites that are still visited and maintained. These are:

• Disability Discrimination Reporting Service
• Library
• Fashion Freaks
• The Law as a Tool
• Article 19 as a Tool
• PA-tips

Disability Discrimination Reporting Service helps individuals and organisations to report cases of discrimination to the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman and, where applicable, the respective municipal building committee. The service has been developed and has existed since the late 1990s. The site was visited during the year by about 5,000 people, of which 17 made reports. During the year, ILI had a meeting with DHR about their service "Remove the obstacle" and potential future collaboration.

Library: ILI's online full-text library offers authors the publication, exposure and secure archiving of their work, such as articles in scientific journals, reports, handbooks and lectures on Independent Living and related topics. Today, there are over 800 documents in the searchable library, of which the majority are in English, but also about 200 in Swedish and about 100 in other languages, mostly German, French and Spanish. Despite the fact that much of the material is many years old, we still receive appreciative comments from readers in different countries. Communication with readers also includes advice based on the content of the articles.

The publishing system Drupal 7 used for ILI's website and the library was "end of life" at the end of 2024 and must be replaced. ILI began an upgrade to Backdrop CMS in 2025, which is expected to be ready early in 2026.

Fashion Freaks - your online fitting room (2005 – 2007 and 2010 – 2015) is about fashion, clothes and vanity from a sitting perspective. Fashion Freaks' website, which exists in both Swedish and English, previously had project support from the Swedish Inheritance Fund and continues to have many visitors, around 100 people per day in 2025, about half from Sweden.

The Law as a Tool (2016 - 2019) and Article 19 as a Tool (2019 - 2022) were previous Swedish Inheritance Fund projects whose activities have continued to some extent even after that. The Law as a Tool worked to increase the disability movement's access to legal expertise. The project lives on among other things through the website which was subsequently further developed through the project Article 19 as a Tool. As a consequence of the work done in these both projects, several organizations still refer to ILI for legal advice.

PA-tips.se (Personal Assistance Tips, 2013 - 2017) shows a large collection of tips, tricks and examples (with text, images, video or drawings) that personal assistance users and their assistants have developed for various assistance situations. The project previously had project support from the Swedish Inheritance Fund.

Conferences, seminars, study visits, educational initiatives and participation in other actors' events

During the year, many conferences, seminars, study visits and educational initiatives were arranged. ILI's staff also participated in other actors' events. During the year, ILI's staff has been active in the social debate and produced a number of publications, guides and information materials to push rights issues forward.

• 21/1 Adolf Ratzka's memorial fund for migrants with disabilities: The fund arranged an online memorial.
• 12/2 RTA project: Training was held at DHR Region Stockholm for the target group focusing on how to start and run a local branch.
• 13/2 Disability Rights Defenders Sweden: Webinar with the theme "Has DO changed direction?".
• 5/3 RTA project: The project's final conference was carried out as a hybrid event (both on site and digitally).
• 6/3 RTA project: Networking meeting on migration and disabilities.
• 14/3 ILI participated in the dialogue meeting with the Swedish Agency for Participation (MFD) to develop recommendations for implementing the UN CRPD committee's recommendations for Sweden.
• 17/3 ILI conducted a workshop on strategic litigation within the framework of an online training arranged in the project Liti-Gate by the European Network on Independent Living.
• 24/4 Disability History Association (HHF): Seminar at MISA where the feasibility study on the historical development of the Swedish assistive technology system was presented.
• 6/5 ILI/DRW: Digital training at DHR nationally for the target group focusing on how to start and run a local branch.
• 8/5 DRW Support Center: Study visit from students at Karolinska Institutet (KI) focusing on the problem that older migrants with disabilities encounter.
• 15/5 Decision Support Project: The project's first training seminar was held, where researcher Dan-Olof Rooth lectured on the labour market for people with disabilities.
• 20/5 RTA project: Lecture for an informal network of lawyers in disability rights where lessons learned from the project were presented.
• 21–22/5 ILI/DRW: Participation in the Swedish Agency for Participation (MFD) dialogue meeting and coordination ahead of the government's new action plan for disability policy.
• 2/6 RTA project: Lecture for the Equality Ombudsman (DO) regarding lessons learned from the project.
• 11-14/6 DRW Support Center: Participation during Järva Week. Rahel and Ashraf distributed brochures and talked about participation.
• 15–19/9 ILI: Participation in ENIL's meeting in Bosnia.
• 29/9 Human Rights Institute: Panel discussion arranged by the Institute for Human Rights (MR-institutet). ILI participated to highlight the political and legal situation specifically for migrants with disabilities.
• 30/9 DRW Support Center & BOSSE Advice, Support & Knowledge Centre: Implementation of a joint theme meeting/course on sexual health issues aimed at migrants with disabilities.
• 8/10 Disability Rights Defenders Sweden: seminar Andrea Bondesson Rolandsson talked about process lessons from her work at Disability Rights Sweden, administrative court and law firm.
• 10/10 HHF: Final seminar for the assistive technology project.
• 13/10: Participation in the County Administrative Board of Västerbotten's Participation Week with the digital lecture "Security for migrants with disabilities – what living conditions and experiences must we consider?".
• 15/10: Emil was interviewed by a researcher about independent living and cross-disability.
• 21/10 Decision Support Project: Reference group meeting (hybrid meeting) for the project's partner organizations, where among other things study circles were discussed.
• 21/10 DRW Support Center: Participation in Järva Week's autumn mingle.
• 24/10 HRF (Association of Hard of Hearing) Stockholm: Educational initiative where Rahel and Ashraf held a digital presentation on inclusion, work and accessibility for foreign-born people with hearing impairments.
• 5/11 DRW Support Center: Participation in the Stockholm City Mission's seminar on the return process.
• 12/11 Decision Support Project: Information meeting together with the support group Inner Circle Stockholm, which resulted in the entire participant group joining the project's study circle series.
• 23/11 ILI: Mari lectured for the Swedish Thalidomide Society Injured about how to practically use the disability rights convention as a tool for rights.
• 25/11 ILI: Participation in the closing seminar for the project "Our voices must be heard".
• 26/11 Decision Support Project: The first meeting for the study circle "Who decides?" was held at the office in Farsta.
• 27/11 DRW Support Center: A roundtable discussion was arranged in STIL's premises together with collaborative partners.
• 2/12 ILI: Co-arrangement of a women's conference focusing on violence together with MyRight and ENIL.
• 6/12 Decision Support Project: Participation in Inner Circle Stockholm's mulled wine mingle for networking with potential project participants.
• 9-10/12 The Human Rights Days: Representation at the Kista Fair from both DRW Support Center and the Decision Support Project. Participation in seminars arranged by among others (FUB) The Swedish National Association for People with Intellectual Disability, the JAG Association and the Vilja Group, as well as meetings in the Swedish Inheritance Fund's booth. We spread information about ILI's issues.
• 17/12 DRW Support Center: Study visit from students at Karolinska Institutet (KI) focusing on the problem that older migrants with disabilities encounter, among other things digitalization challenges as well as creative ideas for storyteller activities.

Advocacy and public opinion forming

ILI's staff has participated in dialogue meetings with various authorities such as the Institute for Human Rights, the Equality Ombudsman and the Swedish Agency for Participation (MFD) regarding various procedures such as action plans for disability policy, consultation procedures or government assignments specifically concerning people with disabilities.

During the autumn, ILI monitored the investigation into family immigration. ILI paid attention to and published articles about the government's investigation into limitations in welfare for non-citizens. At the same time, we carried on a dialogue with the Swedish Agency for Participation (MFD) and the Institute for Human Rights regarding their consultation responses to the report.

ILI's participation in authority dialogues has contributed to our issues and proposals being included in authorities' consultation responses and in guidelines for disability rights issues such as recommendations to the government and action plans.

Publications, interviews, consultation responses and appearances in various media

Publications 2025:

• On Assistanskoll's website, 148 news articles about personal assistance were published during the year. The newsletter was sent out on 15 occasions during the year, which reached approximately 3,500 recipients. The website had about 560,000 page views during 2025.
• On the DRW Support Center/RTA project's website, 21 news articles were published and 3 newsletters were sent out to 640 subscribers during the year. The website had about 3,000 users from Sweden during 2025. DRW's Facebook page has 561 followers.
• The website for My life, my choice (the decision support project) mittlivmittval.se was launched during 2025.
• A section in the course "Inclusion work for the HRF Association" was published by the Association of Hard of Hearing under the heading "Part 3: Inclusive activities for migrants with disabilities by the Independent Living Institute".
• The publication Reasonable accommodation: ensuring rights begins with a DIALOGUE - Guidelines for regulation and practice in Lithuania, Latvia, and Sweden." - a collaboration financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers and Lithuanian Disability Forum (LDF).
• History of assistive technology: The feasibility study "We got a spin on it: voices from the history of assistive technology" is about the historical development of the Swedish assistive technology system. It was written by Emil Erdtman and produced in collaboration with the Disability Historical Association 2024. Under 2025, due to demand, a new print was made by the publisher Vulkan which makes it able to be bought in bookstores.
• Mapping of Decision Support (Microboards): Within My life, my choice (the decision support project), a description of how the system with decision support groups (Microboards) works internationally in Canada, Australia and Norway was compiled. The project summarized this in an information brochure which was translated to easy-to-read - as well as a combined version. In addition, an information brochure about the project was published.
• se: The work of digitizing Adolf Ratzka's life work was completed during the autumn. The project gathered Adolf's articles, films and newly published memoirs for dissemination to the general public.
• The dream of a job in a new home country - this is how it became reality via the project the Right to Work - a popular written report for dissemination about Mutual Integration and the Right to Work 2022-2025.
• Poster about Adolf Ratzka, accepted and shown at the research conference Nordic Network for Disability Research in Helsinki.

Collaboration

Collaboration with the Swedish National Resource Centre for Deafblindness (NKCDB)

ILI is part of an expert council organized by NKCDB where ILI, through a consulting assignment with Ola Linder, has contributed legal expertise in the role of primarily supporting the regions' curators in legal issues linked to current legislation in the area. The assignment is also about developing the understanding of legal rights issues in general in relation to people with disabilities.

Collaboration with the association Disability Rights Defenders Sweden (DRDS)

Disability Rights Defenders Sweden (DRDS) pursues discrimination cases related to disability, if necessary in court. In addition, the association provides information about the human rights of people with disabilities, provides advice and information about disability discrimination. ILI and DRDS collaborate, among other things, through information dissemination, as DRDS' website is embedded in ILI's website for the Law as a tool. At the beginning of 2026, DRDS will start up its own website: drds.se.

Collaboration with the disability movement in Sweden and internationally

Through our long joint work with other organizations to expand and defend our civil rights and increase our concrete opportunities to live like others, ILI has continued to build up and strengthen good contacts within civil society in Sweden and internationally. With this broad network, we continuously find new collaborative partners and build reference groups to strengthen the development within the disability field.

STIL is ILI's closest collaborative partner and during 2025, communication and collaboration were strengthened through meetings between STIL's and ILI's management. ILI participated in the kick-off on November 5 in JAG's premises where a joint venture on a tour around the country was discussed and planned. Caroline Ardbos's film "The struggle to have a life" is to be shown. ILI's Director also has a seat in the steering group for STIL's new project Center for Independent Living (CIL) which was initiated during the year.

ILI continues to serve as an international information agency. According to our action plan, it is a stated goal to be an active sister organization within the European and global Independent Living movement (ENIL and WIN - The World Independent Living Network). During 2025, we have among other things collaborated with organizations in Canada (Vela), Norway and Australia for exchange of experiences regarding decision support groups (Microboards). We have also collaborated with the Lithuanian Disability Forum (LDF) to produce guidelines for reasonable accommodation. Furthermore, we have deepened our international work by among other things participating in ENIL's meeting in Bosnia and by co-arranging a conference on violence against women together with MyRight and ENIL in December. Meetings have also been held with IOM (International Organization for Migration).

Examples of networks/cooperative groups regarding disability issues that ILI has participated in during 2025:

• Network for migrants with disabilities, originally started by the Swedish Agency for Participation (MFD). ILI participated in dialogue meetings and in interviews. In May 2025, ILI took over the rotating chairmanship of the network, and organized two network meetings. Ongoing coordination continues.
• The Church of Sweden's network for disability rights issues. The collaboration resulted among other things in a visit to the Church of Sweden's house in Uppsala in August.
• The Human Rights’ network, which is coordinated by the Swedish Foundation for Human Rights.
• The working group for Parallel report CRPD, coordinated by Disability Rights Federation Sweden.
• NCCPA - Nordic IL Competence Centre for personal assistance, a collaboration together with ENIL and Norwegian ULOBA.
• The Integration Pact's network in the City of Stockholm, where ILI among other things participated in meetings in Rågsved and Farsta.
• Network of organizations working for Ukraine.
• Networking was initiated during the year with actors such as the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SAK) and the European Migration Network for future collaboration.

Reference groups that ILI has been part of in 2025:

• Peer support with STIL (The Independent Living Development Foundation/ILU). ILI is one of several official collaborative partners in this three-year Swedish Inheritance Fund project.
• Our voices must be heard (Disability Rights Federation Stockholm City, Begripsam and Disability History Association). A project to gather stories with digital AI tools where ILI is included in the reference group.
• Research service at Marie Cederschiöld University (financed by the Grant Foundation).
• Different but equal - Multilingual user support (Tahrir and ABF Malmö). ILI participated until the project's end in September 2025.
• Campus Nyköping (regarding Independent Living in the education).

ILI's Director and Chairman of the Board, Jamie Bolling, has during the year been:

• ENIL's co-chair, member of the ENIL Management Team and Audit Committee.
• Board member of Bente Skansgård's Independent Living Fund.
• Chairman of MyRight's board.
• Member of UNICEF Sweden's board.
• Member of Campus Nyköping's management team.

ILI's Director as of September, Emil Erdtman, has during the year been:

• Researcher at the Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University:
• Presentation at the research conference NNDR (Nordic Network for Disability Research) in Helsinki (Leveraging Disability Experience in the Implementation and Co-Creation of Universal Design for Swedish Urban Development).
• Workshop at the research conference AAATE 2025 (assistive devices), Nicosia, Cyprus (Learning from the AT-history to Inform the Development of Sustainable AT Ecosystems).
• A scientific article published: Practical wisdom for accessible cities: Creative tensions in Universal Design processes for Swedish urban development. Journal of Accessibility and Design for all.
• Address at the Swedish Defence University's Peace Day: From vulnerable to peacebuilders: the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as a catalyst for peace.
• Sat on the panel at the research conference MuseIT, Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg.
• Lecture on an inclusive labour market for Youth with Visual Impairment – with Dan-Olof Rooth.
• Presentation at the research conference Human Dignity and Participation at Marie Cederschiöld University in Stockholm.
• Presentation on the assistive technology book at Design Day, Mid Sweden University in Sundsvall.
• Lecture on universal design at DHR Region Stockholm.
• Investigations on new building regulations and crisis preparedness at DHR, 2 articles in the magazine Funktionshinderpolitik.
• Member of Sharemusic's board.

ILI's staff

In 2025, the workforce had a rich variety of skills and experiences, several with their own experience of disabilities, an even distribution between genders, a wide span of ages and with origins in different countries. ILI's staff in 2025 consisted of the following people, all of whom have worked part-time, some only for shorter periods:

Algren Morgan, project co-worker in Assistanskoll and the Disability Rights Defenders project.

Ashraf Frugh, project co-worker in the DRW Support Center, the Right to Work project and the upcoming Disabled Refugees Stories – ”Adabi”.

Emil Erdtman, Director from September 1, 2025 (former project co-worker), as well as co-worker in the HHF project and the Right to Work project.

Erik Tillander, journalist and project co-worker in the My life, my choice project and the Right to Work project.

Jamie Bolling, Director (until August), thereafter expert and Chairman of the Board. Advisor/project co-worker in MARLENE, DRD and responsible for ILI's international networking.

Kenneth Westberg, journalist and project manager for Assistanskoll.

Linda Robertsson, Office manager incl. administration, personnel and finance.

Mari Siilsalu, lawyer and project co-worker in the DRW Support Center, My life, my choice project as well as the Right to Work project.

Philip Day, webmaster, database programmer and project co-worker in Assistanskoll, the Right to Work project and the project My life, my choice.

Rahel Abebaw Atnafu, project co-worker in the DRW Support Center, the Right to Work project and the upcoming Disabled Refugees Stories – ”Adabi”.

Tiina Nummi-Södergren, project manager for the My life, my choice project as well as project manager in the Right to Work project until its conclusion in March.

In addition to this, work has been carried out on a consultancy basis and through intermittent short employment/freelance assignments as well as volunteer efforts. Consulting assignments that ran for longer periods were carried out by:

Ola Linder, with contributions to the NKCDB assignment.

Sebastian Ferrer, Accounting Services.

Suzanne Elmqvist, with contributions to the Right to Work project.

A major volunteer effort was made by Dorothee Riedel.

Financing

ILI thanks:

• The Swedish Inheritance Fund, which financed the project the Right to Work and the project My life, my choice!
• Bente Skansgård's Independent Living Fund, which financed Disability Rights Defenders and ratzka.se.
• The Grant Foundation (DHR), which financed the project Disabled Refugees Welcome – Support Center (DRW Support Center).
• The Swedish Energy Agency, which financed the project MARLENE - Mobility, Accessibility, and Rhythms of Everyday Life in Towns and Neighbourhoods.
• The Disability History Association, which has financed the two-part project on the historical development of the Swedish assistive technology system.
• The Independent Living Development Foundation (STIL/ILU) which contributed to ILI's activities with financial support.

In addition to this, ILI's activities have been financed through fees for various assignments, such as NKCDB, through advertisements on Assistanskoll.se and private gifts, most of which went to the Adolf Ratzka Memorial Fund for Migrants with Disability.

Composition of the Board of Directors and meetings

Jamie Bolling, Härnösand, is a human rights defender with a focus on disability issues, Director of ENIL 2009 - 2017, former member of STIL board and the Green Party's party board, Chairman of MyRight's board. Jamie was Director for ILI until August 2025 and thereafter continues as the board's chairman.

Bengt Elmén, Stockholm, author, debater and lecturer, board member of STIL, head of STIL 1987-1991.

Christine (Dinah) Radtke, Germany. Founder and Chairman of the Center for Independent Living, Erlangen, Germany; member of the board of directors of the German national IL association ISL; Vice President for Disabled People International, debater.

Jonas Franksson, Stockholm, is a human rights defender with a focus on disability issues, chairman of STIL, Disability Rights Defenders Sweden, etc. Jonas is a deputy for Bengt Elmén.

Miro Griffiths, Leeds, UK, is employed by Leeds University and teaches disability rights issues; between 2015 and 2018 employed as a researcher at Liverpool John Moores University; received an MBE award (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2014 for his work on behalf of people with disabilities; is a member of the British Sociological Association for disability rights issues; a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Disability Advisory Committee; a member of the Liverpool City Region Fairness and Social Justice Advisory Board; member of the International Independent Living Research Network.

Rosangela Berman Bieler, USA/Brazil. Founder and President of the Centro de Vida Independente de Rio de Janeiro, former president of the InterAmerican Institute on Disability and Inclusive Development, former Special Counsel on Disability and Inclusive Development at the World Bank, former Global Lead on Disability at UNICEF.

In 2025, the Board had two Board meetings: on May 26 and November 9, as well as taking a per capsulam decision on March 19. In addition, contact has taken place via email, telephone and individual meetings.

2026-05-17

Jamie Bolling

Chair