Adolf Ratzka (1943 – 2024) died on Sunday 21 July at the age of 80.
Adolf started working on this website in 2020 and collected here material he had written or otherwise created along with interviews and articles written about him. Below is the version of his CV that he put on this site in 2021.
Born 1943, since 1961 user of personal assistance, ventilator, and power chair, 1988 married to Dorothee Riedel-Ratzka, 1994 daughter Katharina Ratzka
I spent five years – 1961 through 1966 – in a hospital ward for lack of personal assistance services and accessible housing in the community. I consider these years as my foremost credentials in my life-long work for deinstitutionalization and personal assistance.
Academic Degrees
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Bachelor of Arts in Sociology (1969)
- Master of Science in Business Administration (1971)
- Ph.D. in Urban Land Economics (1981)
- University of Stockholm
- Fil. Kand. in Psychology (1981)
Professional Appointments
- 1993 – 1997
- Founder and Director, Institute on Independent Living, Sweden
- 1995 – 1996
- Representative of Sweden, HELIOS Program, European Union
- 1994 – 1995
- Professor ad honorem, Disability Studies, University of Costa Rica
- 1986 – 1994
- Associate Coordinator, CIB W84 Building Non-Handicapping Environments
- 1978 – 1994
- Research Economist, Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Research Interests
- Policy development and practice of de-institutionalization through personal assistance
- Cost-benefit analysis of accessibility in housing and public buildings
- Land Economics (up to 1982)
Community Service
- 2018
- Founding chair Disability Rights Defenders
- 2008
- Board member Stiftelse till Rolf Bergfors minne
- 1994 – 2003
- Member of Advisory Council, Disability Rights Advocates, Berkeley, California
- 1994 – 2002
- Council Member, Swedish Ombudsman on Disability Issues
- 1989 – 1992
- Founding chair of ENIL, the European Network on Independent Living
- 1985
- Fellow, World Institute on Disability, Oakland, California
- 1984 – 1995
- Founder and chair STIL, Stockholm Cooperative for Independent Living
Lectured on disability and self-determination in over 30 countries
- Participated in United Nations Expert Seminars on disability as invited expert/resource person on Independent Living in Vienna (1986), Stockholm (1987), Tallinn (1989), Lahti (1991), Beijing (1992), Costa Rica (1995), Geneva (2016), and in COSP 14 Civil Society Forum, New York (2021) and many more.
Service to the Field
- Distinguished Fellow, Review of Disability Studies, University of Hawaii
- Overseas Editor, Disability & Society
- Scientific Advisory Board, Hungarian Quarterly on Disability Studies
- International Advisory Council, Ecoplan
Publications and Citations in Google Scholar
Recognitions
- ULOBA Pride Award 2017
- European Citizen Award 2008
- Recognized by TIME magazine as “European Visionary” in edition “Visions of Europe” Winter 98/99
Personal interests
Family, chamber music, psychology, etymology, hydroponics, learning Spanish, traveling, and loads of other things