Simone Belci moved to Berlin after his PhD in History at the University of Urbino. In Berlin he started working as a translator from German to Italian and engaging in the field of inclusion as a volunteer for the Björn Schulz Stiftung. Since 2019 he is a part of the team of OKAY, the office for easy language at Lebenshilfe South Tyrol. For OKAY he rewrites standard Italian texts into easy-to-read texts and translate texts from easy-to-read German into easy-to-read Italian. Since 2022 he co-moderates an informal discussion group about easy-to-read-Italian with professional participants in this field, coming from universities and easy-to-read offices.

Ulla Bohman was the director of the Easy Language Service at the Centre for Easy to Read from 2001 to 2014 and an employee of the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media (MTM) from 2015 to 2018. Since 2018 she has run her own business offering training, lectures and editing services in Easy Language, accessibility and human rights. She has expertise in intercultural and accessible communication and has been invited to present keynote addresses and workshops at several international conferences.

Simone Girard-Groeber is a senior researcher at the Institute for Integration and Participation at the University of Applied Sciences for Social Work FHNW Northwestern Switzerland. Her work focuses on interaction and participation in spoken language and Sign Language as well as on addressee-oriented communication, including Easy Language. In addition to her research activities, she is also active in teaching and further education.

Stefan Johansson researches how everyone should be able to participate in the digital society. He completed his dissertation in 2019 with the thesis Design for Participation and Inclusion will Follow: Disabled People and the Digital Society.

Ulrica Lejbro is a specialist in talking books at the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media, MTM. In this role she manages procurements as well as development and production issues to ensure the best possible talking books for persons with reading impairment in use of MTM’s services. One of her focus areas for the moment is an update of the guidelines for image descriptions that are included in both talking books and braille books. Another process area is the transition from Daisy 2.02 to EPUB3 as a production format for accessible media.

Leealaura Leskelä is a linguist who has worked as an Easy Language specialist with the Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities for over 20 years. She has been involved in the development of Easy Finnish guidelines and materials for persons with language barriers. Her PhD research at the University of Helsinki was concerned with spoken Easy Language for people with intellectual disabilities.

Sandra Marques is a member of the Independent National Monitoring Mechanism for the implementation of the CRPD in Portugal and a part of the team at FENACERCI, which is the National Federation of Cooperatives and Social Solidarity, providing support and services to about 25,000 people with intellectual disabilities and their families, with close to 2500 professionals. Her main topics of interest are the exercising of rights by people with intellectual disabilities and cognitive accessibility. She also works with self-advocacy groups at both national and European level.

Anna Matamala is a Full Professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. As a leader of Transmedia Catalonia research group, Anna Matamala has participated (DTV4ALL, ADLAB, HBB4ALL, ACT, ADLAB PRO, IMAC) and led (AVT-LP, ALST, VIW, NEA, EASIT, RAD) funded projects on audiovisual translation and media accessibility. Anna Matamala has taken an active role in the organization of scientific events such as the Media for All conference or the Advanced Research Audio Description Seminar ARSAD. She is currently leading the Catalan research network AccessCat and is involved in the ATHENA and MEDIAVERSE projects. Her research interests are audiovisual translation and accessibility. She is also actively involved in standardization work.

Shaun Pickering is a specialist in intercultural and accessible communications. Shaun works in communications for inclusion in the international development sector, driving equality and human rights for an inclusive world. Before that, he gained extensive experience as an educator of English as a foreign language in the UK and abroad. He was also a key contributor in a crisis translation training project to enhance accessibility and crisis preparedness in multilingual Sierra Leone. Shaun is a polyglot and is committed to advancing the field of easy language internationally.