Gunta Anca Biography

Gunta Anča is the President of the European Disability Forum, taking office in May 2026 for the 2026-2030 mandate. She is also Chairperson of SUSTENTO, Latvia’s umbrella organisation of disability NGOs, a position she has held since 2002. She holds degrees in Latvian language and literature, social sciences and business management. Across all her roles, Gunta combines lived experience, grassroots organising and European advocacy. Her work is guided by a simple principle: people with disabilities must not only be consulted, but must have real power in every decision affecting their lives.

Gunta was born in Riga during the Soviet period. Because mainstream schools were not accessible to children with disabilities, she was educated at home. At the age of 18, she began working from home making artificial flowers while continuing her studies. This early experience of exclusion shaped her lifelong determination to ensure that persons with disabilities are not separated from education, employment, public life or decision-making.

Her activism grew from practical work in Latvia. In 1998, she co-founded APEIRONS, an organisation that has become a leading voice on accessibility, employment, social services, education and public awareness. In 2000, she helped establish the Easy Language Agency (Vieglās valodas aģentūra), promoting easy-to-read information and cooperation with public institutions so that information can be understood by people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities.

Since becoming Chairperson of SUSTENTO in 2002, Gunta has brought together organisations representing people with different disabilities and chronic illnesses. Under her leadership, SUSTENTO has strengthened the participation of persons with disabilities in national policymaking and worked for practical improvements in accessible public services, transport, infrastructure, information, employment and social protection. During Latvia’s accession to the European Union, she helped connect Latvian and other Central and Eastern European disability organisations with the wider European movement, ensuring that voices from the region became active contributors rather than observers.

Gunta has extensive experience in European civil society and EU policymaking. She served as Latvia’s representative in the European Economic and Social Committee from 2004 to 2020. She joined the governing structures of EDF in 2005 and later served as Vice-President before being elected President in 2026. Through EDF, she contributed to collective advocacy supporting major advances such as the European Accessibility Act, the Web Accessibility Directive, stronger passenger rights and improved political participation for persons with disabilities.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Gunta and SUSTENTO helped Ukrainians with disabilities and their families arriving in Latvia, including with accommodation, documentation, healthcare, assistive technology and links to services. She also helped create the Riga Academy, which brings Ukrainian disability activists together with Latvian and European practitioners. The Academy combines rights-based learning with practical visits and strengthens participants’ capacity to influence Ukraine’s inclusive recovery and European integration.

Gender equality has been a consistent part of her work. Gunta served on the Board of the European Women’s Lobby from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2016, pressing for disability to be included in European gender-equality policy and for gender equality to be embedded in disability policy. She has spoken publicly about violence, poverty, inaccessible healthcare, employment inequality and the political under-representation experienced by women and girls with disabilities.

Gunta has also challenged barriers to political participation. In 2019, she was the lead candidate of Progresīvie in Latvia for the European Parliament elections, becoming one of the few women with disabilities in Europe to lead a national electoral list. In 2018, Latvia recognised her contribution by awarding her the Order of the Three Stars, the country’s highest state decoration.