New Director Emil Erdtman 1 september 2025

After Adolf Ratzka, the founder of the Independent Living Institute (ILI), passed away in 2024, some organisational changes have taken place. Jamie Bolling has stepped in as the institutes's chair and, today, September 1, 2025, is handing over the role of Director to Emil Erdtman. From 2017 to 2019, Emil was the project manager for ILI's project Lagen som verktyg (The Law as a Tool). Since then, he has earned a doctorate at Lund University. His dissertation is titled Universell utformning i praktiken: förståelse, genomförande och samskapande (Universal Design in Practice: Understanding, Implementation, and Co-creation). The position at ILI is part-time, and Emil also holds a smaller research position at Stockholm University and, this autumn, a part-time position at DHR (The Swedish Disability Rights Organization). Emil has a congenital vision impairment and lifelong experience of living with a disability.

Emil will represent ILI at conferences and events. This begins in September with sitting on a panel at the final conference of the EU project MuseIT. This research project, coordinated by the University of Borås, concerns equal access to art and culture. Among other things, it investigates how new digital tools can enable more people to experience art and music through multiple senses. On September 12, Emil will lead a workshop in Cyprus at a research conference on assistive technology, focusing on what we can learn from the history of assistive technology development. Many assistive devices have been developed by people with disabilities who had ideas and were driven by the struggle for a better and more dignified life. You can read Emil's book on the history of assistive technology at the Disability History Association (Handikapphistoriska föreningen).

At the office, the work continues on applying for future projects and ensuring the success of ongoing projects. ILI has just launched the project Mitt liv, mitt val (My Life, My Choice). This concerns the right to supported descision making and is testing new methods for decision-making support with people who use a legal guardian (god man) or administrator (förvaltare).