Ioannis Vardakastanis was born on the Greek island of Zakynthos in 1957. He is a political scientist. Throughout his life he has been a human rights campaigner, active at national, European and international level. His involvement in social movements started from the Greek movement of the blind. In 1986, at the early age of 29, he was elected President of the Panhellenic Association of the Blind, whereas from 1992 to 2013 he was the head of the international relations department of the same Association. He is the President of the National Confederation of Disabled People of Greece (N.C.D.P.), which is the umbrella organization of the Greek disability movement, since 1993. He is the President of the European Disability Forum (EDF), the umbrella organization of the European disability movement since 1999.