Web_RI2008

INVITED SPEAKERS

	LEX GRANDIA Abstract title: Will come He was born in the Netherlands in 1950, two months too early. He was hard of hearing and became blind in the intensive care. He studied theology and psychotherapy at the universities of Utrecht and Amsterdam, P.H.D. He was working as a hospital councillor and in a project around young people with social problems.

He got involved in the deafblind organisations in the Netherlands, became representative in the European Deafblind Network, EDbN. He was elected chair of EDbN in 1994 and secretary in 1995. The same year he married for the second time, with Ann Thestrup, who lives in Denmark. He moved in that year to Denmark.

He became board member of the European Disability Forum in 1997 - 2001. He was very much involved in the creation and founding of the World Federation of the DeafBlind, WFDB. He was elected Secretary General in 2001 and president of WFDB in 2005.

He has been chair of the International Disability Alliance from June 2007 to July 2008.

He plays the piano, is a shiatsu masseur and makes sculptures in stone.