Raul Krauthausen

Raúl Aguayo-Krauthausen (born 1980 in Lima, Peru) is a German disability rights activist. He studied Social and Economic Communication at the Berlin University of the Arts and Design Thinking at the HPI School of Design Thinking. He was awarded the Order of Merit of Germany and is an Ashoka Fellow. Together with his cousin he founded the nonprofit organisation Sozialhelden in 2004. The organisation develops projects which address social issues and offer practical solutions in a spirit of diversity and inclusion. Their fundraising project Pfandtastisch helfen, which raises funds for other nonprofit organisations through donated bottle recycling receipts, received the Startsocial prize from Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2008. In 2010, Wheelmap.org, a crowdsourced online map for finding and marking wheelchair accessible places was launched by Sozialhelden. The map, which is available in 22 languages, is based on OpenStreetMap and operates under a Creative-Commons license. In addition to his work for Sozialhelden Raúl Krauthausen co-founded Selfpedia.de in 2013, an online self-help community for questions and advice pertaining to life with a disability. Raúl Krauthausen is a frequent guest on talk shows and a popular interview partner for journalists regarding topics related to disability rights, accessibility and inclusion. One of the newest Sozialhelden projects is Leidmedien.de, an online platform for journalists and others whose work involves the portrayal of people with disabilities. Through advocacy, articles, workshops and informational materials Leidmedien.de offers perspectives on life with a disability which steer away from stereotypes and clichés. In 2014 Raúl Krauthausen developed a printable 3D mini-ramp which can be used to overcome sidewalk curbs in a wheelchair. Raúl Krauthausen has osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease, and uses a wheelchair.