The European Platform of Self-Advocates organises a conference every 2 years. The conference is called Hear our Voices!
Hear Our Voices! is a big self-advocacy event.
It happens every two years in different countries in Europe. It is a time for self-advocates to meet, talk, and make change happen!
The conference is organised by self-advocates for self-advocates. The European Platform of Self-Advocates (EPSA) organises the event, deciding on topics and speakers. EPSA is part of Inclusion Europe.
More than 1,300 people have attended Hear our Voices! self-advocacy conferences since the first conference in 2009. Most of the participants are people with intellectual disabilities.
Past Hear our Voices!
Europe 2025: Being heard. Being seen.
In 2025, Hear Our Voices! was a series of events to make self-advocates visible and vocal in their countries and in Europe too.
There were 23 events in 18 countries.
1,152 people participated in these events.
- Report on the final event in Brussels.
- Report about Hear Our Voices! 2025.
Tallin 2023
Nearly 150 participants from 11 countries talked about what is self-advocacy, how it works in different countries, about the different roles and situations self-advocates are active in, and about the topics important to them.
During the conference in Tallin, Estonia, self-advocates prepared and approved a manifesto: Make it real!
Europe 2021
In 2021 year the Hear our Voices! self-advocacy conference had a different format than usual. The conference was held in several countries.
The conference was a series of events by self-advocates all over Europe. Many self-advocacy organisations and groups joined and contributed with their events.
Graz 2019
150 self-advocates from 18 countries, countless positive encounters and 7 main demands: this is the result of the Hear our Voices conference for self-advocates, which took place in Graz, Austria.
Brussels 2017
More than 70 self-advocates and their supporters from nearly 20 countries came to the event to discuss topics such as being a board member in an organisation, being included in the community, setting up a self-advocacy group or the right to vote.
The event took place in Brussels, Belgium.
Madrid 2015
The European Platform of Self-Advocates (EPSA), together with Inclusion Europe and Plena Inclusion welcomed persons with intellectual disabilities, their families, support persons and interested individuals coming from 27 different countries.
More than 350 participants took part in this completely accessible event in Madrid, Spain, developed by and for self-advocates.
Zagreb 2013
Over 130 self-advocates and supporters from 20 countries joined in to claim the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities as equal citizens of their countries.
Called ‘Hear our voices: Citizens first!’, the conference was organised to mark the European Year of Citizens and highlight the difficulties encountered by persons with intellectual disabilities when exercising their citizenship rights. It took place in Zagreb, Croatia.
Peniche 2011
Europe’s self-advocates made their voices heard during the 2nd conference of the European Platform of Self-Advocates. Well aware of their rights, participants shared their experiences and discussed ways of breaking down the barriers faced by people with intellectual disabilities in everyday lives.
The conference brought together more than 130 self-advocates and supporters from all over Europe (and beyond) to talk about their lives, their rights, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The first event took place in 2009.
