“We need less barriers in leisure activities, education and politics“

An inclusive society includes the perspective of children and youth in decision-making, as well as the disability perspectives. The Nordic Youth Disability Summit came up with a list of recommendations on how to include youth with disabilities in policy making. On an overall level, the participants underline the need for listening to youth with disabilities.  

– Usually politicians speak the most, but they should listen to youth with disabilities instead, says Ingrid Thunem from The Norwegian Association of Youth with Disabilities (Unge Funksjonshemmede). 

Nordic Youth Disability Summit is a meeting between the Nordic Council of Ministers and Nordic youth disability organisations, and the participants are leaders and representatives from national youth organisations.  

“Fighting for your rights is a constant battle” 

Several of the organisations recommend a proactive approach. 

– Instead of waiting for politicians to listen, we have invited them to our meetings where we can have conversations with them, explains Thaer Thomma from Youth with Disabilities Sweden (Nätverket Unga för Tillgänglighet).  

Anders Hansen, president of the Nordic Youth Council led a workshop about how to include the perspective of young persons with disabilities in Nordic youth policy. 

– Politics and fighting for your rights is a constant battle, therefore you have to stay fighting, says Anders Hansen. 

Teach inclusion in primary school 

The Summit recommends increased education on disability in primary and secondary school. If you are aware of the need for inclusion and accessibility when you are young, you are likely to remember this later in life as an employer, a colleague, a leader in a leisure activity or a decision-maker. Educating teachers about disability is also key, and according to the Summit this needs to be given a higher priority.  

The youth disability organisations call for economic support to influence politics. Funding to the organisations is often earmarked for arranging activities. However, doing political work requires resources.   

Good platforms for raising youth voices are needed. To get youth disability issues onto the political agenda, a stable platform for collecting and sending out the messages is needed.  

The Summit also suggests establishing a contact person in the municipality or national level who would have insight into inclusion and accessibility and could educate the community about these issues. Having this type of contact person on a Nordic level could improve mobility across borders. 

Leisure activities without barriers 

A foundation for an inclusive community is the possibility for children and youth to participate in leisure-time activities. The participants in the Nordic Youth Disability Summit discussed how to avoid exclusion of children and young people with disabilities in leisure activities. 

Barriers can be both social and physical. Social barriers are for example attitudes and prejudices in society or lack of knowledge about disabilities, while physical barriers can be the need for personal assistance or lack of universal design. 

The Norwegian project Barrier free leisure (Barrierefri fritid) is an example of positive change, aimed directly at providers of leisure activities. The project offers training and hands out certificates to inclusive organisations.  

The Nordic Youth Disability Summit discussed recommendations for more inclusive leisure activities.  

– Information to activity leaders is important. It can be very hard for a young volunteering leader to know how to include children with disabilities. Checklists are important, but even more important is to have basic knowledge about inclusion, says Cecilia Ingves from SAMS Disability cooperation federation in Finland (Samarbetsförbundet kring funktionshinder). 

– Many leisure activities are provided by people without a formal education such as parents or siblings to the children, and therefore it can be hard to accurately spread information about how to include children with disabilities, Cecilia Ingves says. 

A positive finding from the project has been that it often is possible to make an activity accessible with only small adjustments or improvements. 

Nordic youth organisations inspire each other 

The Nordic Youth Disability Summit in Malmö gave the participants the opportunity to network and to present their organisations in a Nordic context.  

In several countries, the youth disability work is still developing. While Norway and Denmark have strong umbrella organisations founded over 40 years ago, the Icelandic youth organisation was formed in early 2024 and the Swedish umbrella organisation has been up and running for only a couple of years. There are discussions about forming youth disability organisations in Greenland and Faroe Islands and for the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland.  

– The Nordic Youth Disability Summit has definitely been a good place for exchanging information about this. We learn incredibly much from each other, and the summit has been of great value to all the participants, says Cecilia Ingves from Finland.  

The Summit participants also took part in the meeting of the Council of Nordic Cooperation on Disability in Malmö. They also gave input about inclusive working life in the webinar that was broadcast from Malmö the same week.

Top picture: All the participants in the Nordic Youth Disability Summit, together with Anders Hansen from the Nordic Youth Council (far left). From left: Eiður Welding, Ella Schauman, Gunnrið Høgnadóttir Dam, Cecilia Ingves, Thaer Tomma, Sara Jilsø Fleischer, Nadja Sylvest Pedersen. In front: Ingrid Thunem, Emilie Ghali.