Evaluation Committee of Regional Competition for Accessible Europe

Soufiane El Amrani is the easy-to-read and advocacy expert at Inclusion Europe since 2008. As part of that he has given many trainings in making information accessible and how to consult people with intellectual disabilities in decision affecting them. He is also part of the European Platform of Self-Advocates and the Empower Us Team. Since November 2020, Soufiane is the representative of self-advocates for Europe at the Council of Inclusion International.

Serenella Besio is currently Full Professor of Special Education at the University of Bergamo, Italy. Formerly a speech therapist for children with cerebral palsy, she moved to the field of Assistive Technologies (mainly for learning and communication) where she worked both as a consultant and a researcher. Her main research fields – addressed by most of her publications – are: the use of Assistive Technologies for the individual autonomy, the role of the WHO’s Classification ICF to support the inclusive process in schools, the play of children with disabilities, She has been the Chair of the European COST Action “LUDI – Play for Children with Disabilities” (TD1309).

Prof. Anastasios (Tasos) Dagiuklas, is a leading researcher and expert in the fields of smart Internet technologies for smart cities, ambient assisted living, healthcare, and smart agriculture. He is the leader of the Smart Internet Technologies (SuITE) research group at the London South Bank University where he also acts as the Head of Research Centre for Cognitive Systems. Tasos has been a principal investigator, co-investigator, project and technical manager, coordinator and focal person of more than 20 internationally R&D and Capacity training projects in the areas of 4G/5G networking technologies and multimedia networking solutions. Prof. Dagiuklas’ research interests lie in the field of 5G networking technologies, mobile cloud networking, network function virtualization, software defined networks, media streaming technologies, V2X communications, and cyber security for smart Internet systems.


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After graduating from the Vienna University of Economics, Michael Fembek (born 1961) joined GEWINN, an Austrian business magazine, serving between 2000 and 2007 as editor-in-chief. In 2009 he initiated “Sinnstifter”, a project by Austrian philanthropists, and launched the annual Austrian CSR-Guide on corporate responsibility. In 2010 he joined the Essl Foundation as Programme Manager and – until 2014 - the bauMax group as its Head of Social Affairs. Since 2011 he is the Director of the Zero Project, a project of the Essl Foundation, and organizes the annual Zero Project Conference in the UN Headquarters in Vienna. In 2014, he co-initiated the Verband für Gemeinnütziges Stiften, the Austrian philanthropic association, where he serves as Vice President. In 2015, he became the Chair of the Thematic Group on Disabilities within the European Foundation Centre (EFC), in 2016 he co-initiated the Haus der Philanthropie in Vienna, and in 2019 he co-initiated the Sinnnbildungsstiftung, a foundation focusing on innovations in education, and now serves as a board member.

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Francisco Godinho is Assistant Professor in the Engineering Department of the School of Science and Technology at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD). He is also Coordinator of the Center for Rehabilitation and Accessibility Engineering (CERTIC) and President of SUPERA - Portuguese Society for Rehabilitation Engineering, Assistive Technologies and Accessibility. He has 25 years of professional experience in the field of Rehabilitation Engineering. He holds a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UTAD and his main scientific interests are related to the Accessibility of Information and Communication Technologies, Rehabilitation Technologies and training in Rehabilitation Engineering and Accessibility.

​​​​​Humberto Insolera
Executive Committee, European Disability Forum (EDF)
Humberto Insolera was born from a Deaf family and has studied in various universities (Padova, Bristol, Geneva and Washington D.C.). After his graduating, he attended and delivered various seminars, conferences and workshops in various continents. In 2009, he was Board Member of the European Union of the Deaf (EUD), and since 2013 has been EUD vice-president till 2017. During his time at EUD he has actively participated in European Institutions, such as European Parliament Committee Sessions, European Commission Conference on the European Day of Persons with Disabilities and also in the Council of Europe. From 2013 he has been chairing of the Accessibility Working Group. Dr Humberto Insolera was a Consultant on foreign affairs of the Ente Nazionale Sordi (ENS), Lecturer of Deaf Studies, and independent consultant. He was a Member of the Expert Group on Human Rights for the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD). In addition to this, he has been an Italian Youth Committee Member and coordinated the first and second Italian Deaf academic conference for deaf, deaf blind and hard of hearing delegates in 2011 and 2016. He also participated in the UN CRPD Ad Hoc Committee meetings in New York and was involved in the implementation and monitoring processes of the UN CRPD both in Italy and at a European level via EUD. In May 2017 he has been elected in EDF Board of Directors and EDF Executive committee. He is chairman of the EDF’s ICT email expert group, EDF Human Rights and Non-Discrimination Committee member, and EDF Youth Committee substitute.

Laura Henriques is currently responsible for the Change Management area of the Directorate General for Information and Innovation at ANACOM. She graduated in Social and Cultural Communication, with a postgraduate degree in Digital Marketing. For over 10 years she was responsible for ANACOM's website. From an early age she understood that full accessibility to information and knowledge is an elementary right of all citizens, regardless of the special needs they may have. During this period, she coordinated, for the first time in Portugal, a program of projects participated by universities, some associations of people with special needs and a group of developers, with a view to creating a hub of sharing experience and knowledge in order to making ANACOM's website fully accessible to users.She has dedicated the last few years of her professional life to promoting a new digital culture at ANACOM, the National Communications Authority.

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Susanna Laurin has a long experience in working with disability-related issues at senior management level. She is the Chief Research and Innovation Officer of Funka, after 16 years as CEO at the company. She is also the Chair of the Global Leadership Council of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals, IAAP, a division of G3ict. Susanna has led a series of strategic assignments for the European Commission and national governments when it comes to policy and regulations, for example around the Web Accessibility Directive and the European Accessibility Act. She is a member of the ETSI Special Task Force 536 which is developing the EN301549-standard, containing the minimum requirements of the European legislation. Susanna is also active in national standardisation and research projects on new accessibility requirements. She is a frequent international lecturer and debater and she serves on a number of program committees for conferences in the field of accessibility.

 

 

Veronica Montanaro is an established Speech and Language Pathologist from Malta. She has been working in the field for over 16 years & is also a visiting assistant lecturer at the University of Malta. Veronica forms part of an independent multidisciplinary Team in Malta (TAASC) and is also a founding Partner at Move - The Sports & Exercise Medicine Centre. Veronica was an active member of COST Action (TD 1309) LUDI: Play for Children with Disabilities, following which, she joined another COST Action (CA19104) - Advancing Social Inclusion through Technology and EmPowerment. She has also just begun her Doctoral Studies at the Centre for Disability Studies (CDS), University of Leeds.

Mark Wheatley has operated as the Executive Director of the European Union of the Deaf (EUD) since 2007. Under his leadership, EUD has grown to be a more visible organisation, both in terms of its external (social) media coverage and its internal member communication. He is co-author of the EUD book “Sign Language Legislation in the European Union”. He has been a member of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) Expert Group on Human Rights. Furthermore, he was involved as an expert in the World Health Organisation and World Bank World Report on Disability to ensure that sign language users were adequately included both in terms of terminology and accuracy of information. He also contributed to various academic publications on the topic of sign language and technological development as an enabler of deaf rights.