Our Board appointed the new members for our Youth Committee during its meeting on the 24-25 October.
The European Disability Forum’s Youth Committee is the voice of young people with disabilities inside our organisation. The Committee ensures that EDF’s work takes into account the perspective of young people with disabilities. The Committee represents young people with disabilities in both EDF and external
events. Members should be up to 27 years old when appointed.
Meet the new full members
Representing national councils
Dongdong Camany
DongDong is 23 years old and represents the Italian disability Forum
Dongdong is a Paralympic judoka, winner of several national and international medals and a disability activist promoting equal opportunities in sports and the right of persons with disabilities. He is a public speaker and took the floor in New York at the States Party Conference on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. His main professional interests include accessible technology, software development, assistive technologies, digital accessibility and human-computer interaction. He collaborates with technology companies on the development of accessible products and services, contributing his lived experience as a blind person to co-design, user testing and accessibility evaluation.
Renée Joosten
Renée is 27 years old and represents Ieder(in) the Dutch National Disability Council
Renée is a diligent, independent, almost-graduated 27-year-old Master Science in Society student and disability advocate. An electric wheelchair user due to a muscular disease, her lived experience as a disabled young person and strong sense of justice have ultimately formed her vision: a truly inclusive society.
Her background is in medical biology and disease processes on the cellular level. However, during her Master’s in Science in Society and advocacy courses at Ieder(in), the desire awoke to dedicate herself professionally to disability advocacy.
Ester Ridal
Ester is 21 years old and represents the Swedish Disability Rights Federation
Ester is a student with a hearing loss and dyslexia living in Sweden. On her spare time, she engages in the work of accessibility and disability rights in Sweden as a board member of The Swedish Association of Hard of Hearing Young People.
Nikoline Krista Tesluka
Nikoline is 19 years old and represents SUSTENTO, the National Latvian Disability Council.
Nikoline is a grade 12 student and young woman with cerebral palsy from rural Latvia. Involved in disability inclusion and self-advocacy since 2024, with experience in international youth projects, public speaking, community outreach, and event organization. Interested in meaningful youth participation, autonomy, the transition into adulthood, and accessibility outside major cities
Representing European Organisations
Mattéo Bedock
Mattéo is 21 years old and represents the European Union of the Deaf
Mattéois a Board member of the Youth Disability Association in French (100% Handinamique), and the European Union of the Deaf Youth. He is also a law student (2nd year) at the University “Paris-VIII Vincennes- Saint-Denis”, committed to the cause of the deaf community and against injustice in the world
Tania Galián
Tania is 27 years old and represents the European Federation of Hard of Hearing.
Tania is a young hard-of-hearing disability-rights activist with experience in inclusive education, accessibility, youth participation and cultural inclusion. She works at ACAPPS (Catalan Association for the Promotion of Deaf People), fostering the active participation of users and leading the organisation’s youth group. She is also aSecretary of the International Federation of Hard of Hearing Young People (IFHOHYP) and regular collaborator of the European Federation of Hard of Hearing People (EFHOH)
Luke McLaughlin
Luke is 23 years old and represents the European Network on Independent Living.
Luke is a Disability Rights activist from Derry, Northern Ireland. He has lived experience of haemophilia. He is a Youth Board member of the European Network on Independent Living. He is the Chairperson of the SDLP Disabled Members Group (Social Democratic and Labour Party) in Northern Ireland, where he and his group are pushing for reform of Disability rights legislation. Luke is interested in health rights, education and political participation of disabled people.
Fabiana Teixeira Morais
Fabiana is 23 years old and represents Inclusion Europe
Fabiana is a young self-advocate with intellectual disability, disability rights activist. Spokesperson for people with intellectual disabilities and advisor on issues concerning young disabled people and disabled people of foreign origin in Iceland, her adoption country. Her interests are accessibility, education, employment, and migrants with disabilities.
Meet the new observer members
Floriane Vellande
Floriane is 26 years old and represents the Belgian Disability Forum
Floriane is a final year Master’s student in International Relations, actively involved in the non-profit sector and particularly interested in disability rights and their representation at the European level. Profoundly Deaf, bilingual in French Belgian Sign Language (LSFB) and French, her academic and community background has given her a strong understanding of accessibility, participation, and representation issues for Deaf people.
Gabija Šakalytė
Gabija is 23 years old and represents the Lithuanian Disability Forum .
Gabija is a driven student with an emerging passion for disability advocacy, currently studying for a Bachelor’s degree. Eager to apply her skills and lived experience to international projects focused on disability rights while broadening her understanding of disability activism.
Isabelle Blum
Isabelle is 19 years old and represents Autism-Europe.
Isabelle is a 19-year-old autistic autism advocate diagnosed at the age of 11. Advocating since 2022 with AsIAm, Ireland’s Autism Charity. Have spoken on various panels advocating for autistic young people with afore mentioned charity as well as the autistic experience in mental health services for the Irish Global Health Network.
Elisabeth Egel
Elisabeth is 25 years old and represents the European Blind Union
Elisabeth is a young disability-rights advocate with experience in national and European disability policy, youth representation, inclusive education and accessibility. Coordinator of the European Blind Union Youth Forum, member of EBU’s Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Committee, and the youngest Board Member of the Estonian Blind Union.
Carolina da Cruz Arezes
Carolina represents Cerebral Palsy Europe.
Carolina is a young woman living with cerebral palsy from Portugal and is currently studying Law at the University of Minho. Her academic interests include human rights, disability rights, equality and non-discrimination, accessibility, social justice and European affairs.
Maja Munih
Maja represents the National Council of Disability Organizations of Slovenia
Maja Munih has served as the President of the Association of Disabled Students of Slovenia (DŠIS) since October 2025. In this role, she works directly with young people and students with disabilities, advocating for improved conditions in education, greater social inclusion and equal opportunities. Maja also has experience in the broader field of accessibility and inclusion, as she worked with RTV Slovenia on adapting content into plain and easy-to-read language. She subsequently participated as an accessibility assessor in the nationwide project aimed at raising awareness of the social inclusion of persons with disabilities, including the assessment of the accessibility of public buildings and services for persons with mobility impairments.
Julie Šrámková
Julie is 21 years old and represents the European Council of Autistic People,
Julie Šrámková is a young autistic advocate, member of the LGBTQ+ community and a student of Social Geography and Geoinformatics at Charles University in Prague, Czechia. Through her membership in the Czech Ministry of Health’s Patients’ Council for Young People, and through her work on the NeuroDem project, which promotes the participation of neurodivergent youth in democratic processes, she has demonstrated a strong commitment to ensuring that young voices are heard in policy and public life.