Elena Pečarič is Slovenia’s foremost disability rights activist, and a lead proponent of the movement for the independent life of the disabled, as well as the president of the Association for the Theory and Culture of Handicap (YHD), which has advanced assistance for disabled residents of the country in revolutionary ways. Philosopher and theorist, she has also run as a presidential candidate for Slovenia; and she inspires much forward-looking and far-reaching policy and social reform. Her 2021 memoir Freedom to Breathe is published in English translation by 1968 Press (2023).