President hits out at 'embedded' disabled discrimination

Discrimination against the disabled is embedded in sections of Irish society, President Mary McAleese announced today.

Speaking at the opening of ’Get Ahead’, a major new lecture series on living with disabilities in modern Ireland, the President said Ireland’s disabled community were frustrated at encountering barriers to success because of their condition.

The lecture series – ’Disability And Contemporary Ireland’- will bring together disabled organisations in an effort to change employment structures and practices.

It was organised by the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD) which aims to get those suffering from disabilities full access to higher education and to secure employment for graduates.

“In so many deeply embedded and insidious ways our disabled citizens find themselves in cul de sacs which are frustrating and dispiriting,” Ms McAleese said.

“It is not so long ago that I met a young man who was wheelchair bound and had applied to do medicine, but had been rejected even though he had straight As in all his exams.

“The reason he was excluded was that the buildings he would need to access as a medical student were unsuited to wheelchairs.

“Right here and now, unemployment rates for people with a disability, including graduates, remain much greater than for their non-disabled peers.

“That tells us the old barriers are still holding more firm than we would like.

“Thankfully, commendable work is being done to identify and challenge the barriers to recruitment of graduates with disabilities in order to bring about reform.”

Ms McAleese added the lead taken by the higher education sector in recent years was reassuring, but unemployment rates for those with disabilities remained much higher than their non-disabled peers.

“Disability officers, access programmes and cross-community partnerships are now firmly embedded in the culture of our universities and institutes of technology, reshaping thinking, reshaping action.

“The move away from segregated education to mainstream education is another healthy sign of a more integrated, sensitive and effective world to come,” she said.

“Right here and now, unemployment rates for people with a disability, including graduates, remain much greater than for their non-disabled peers.

“That tells us the old barriers are still holding more firm than we would like.

“Thankfully, commendable work is being done to identify and challenge the barriers to recruitment of graduates with disabilities in order to bring about reform.”

Ms McAleese, whose younger brother is deaf, said only in the last decade had any profoundly deaf-from-birth student been admitted to an Irish university.

“If you or I decide we want to do a ten-week evening course in say Art or Computers next autumn at the usual modest cost of, say €100, it is a simple process.

“If you are deaf and can communicate best by sign language, it will cost you €1,500 to employ a sign language interpreter to accompany you to the course, that is if you can find one.”

According to the conference organisers, one in four Irish families experience disabilities and they said it was an issue which must be urgently addressed.

“Despite the very low national figure for unemployment, the stark reality is that there is still very high unemployment amongst people with disabilities which means that the booming economy has not included many of our nation.

“Therefore we believe that these issues must be highlighted and urgently addressed.” a spokeswoman said.

Further details about the lecture series can be found by logging on to www.aheadweb.org