Irish Examiner view: Inaccessibility is unacceptable

Spike Island gaffe

Kay McShane powering through the course of the 1983 Evening Echo Ladies Mini Marathon in Cork. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive

Over 20 years ago, British Paralympic athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson was to be honoured for winning four gold medals in the 2000 Sydney Paralympics at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year when an embarrassing gaffe brought proceedings to a sudden halt.

The lack of a ramp at the ceremony to accommodate wheelchairs meant Grey-Thompson could not access the stage to receive her award in person. The event organisers were left red-faced and the BBC issued an apology as a result.

The fact that this happened almost quarter of a century ago makes recent developments on Spike Island all the more embarrassing.

An exhibition on the island in honour of the late Kay McShane, Paralympic athlete and advocate of access for wheelchair users, may not be supported by her family because it is not wheelchair accessible.

Kay McShane spent her life campaigning for the rights of people with disabilities through her work with the Blanchardstown Centre for Independent Living before passing away in December 2019, aged 70.

Her sister Anne told this newspaper during the week that if Kay were alive she would insist on the proposed exhibition being accessible to all. However, as of now the bus from the island’s ferry dock to the exhibition centre, which is on a hill, is not wheelchair accessible.

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It seems difficult to believe in 2023 that such an oversight seems possible, particularly when planning an exhibition that honours an advocate of accessibility.

For that reason, the McShane family deserve huge praise for their restraint when discussing a display of insensitivity which is unacceptable.