Disability
Supports for Students with Disabilities
Our universities have a well-established tradition of support for students with disabilities, promoting equality of access to higher education, irrespective of ability. We promote access to higher education for students with disability through the Disability Access Route to Education (DARE) scheme. DARE offers places on a reduced points basis to school leavers with disabilities who have the ability to succeed in higher education but who may not be able to meet the points for their preferred course due to the impact of their disability.
Students with disability can also make application to the 1916 Bursary which is a bursary scheme encouraging participation and success by students from sections of society that are significantly under-represented in higher education, including students with disability.
Further detail on access supports available in IUA universities can be found on IUA’s Access web pages.
Recruitment
IUA Guidelines Regarding Accessibility, Inclusiveness and Responsiveness of Recruitment Procedures for Persons with Disability
Click here to read the guidelines
Recognising that a university’s success depends on attracting diverse talent, the IUA VPs for EDI and the HR Directors sponsored a project to address this issue from a recruitment perspective. The project developed guidelines based on universal design principles to improve university recruitment procedures for people with disabilities.
These guidelines offer both principled and practical advice to eliminate barriers and enhance inclusivity in the recruitment process.
Staff
In relation to staff with disability, the right of people with disabilities to equal treatment in employment is enshrined in legislation through the Employment Equality Acts 1998 – 2016, and many universities have developed codes of practice and policies to give effect to these rights.
In addition, as universities are public service bodies, the Disability Act 2005 places additional requirements on universities, to promote the employment of people with disabilities and to employ at least 3% of staff with a disability. This will be increasing to 6% by 2025 as outlined in the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2022.
Reasonable accommodations
An employer is required by equality legislation to take appropriate measures to enable a person who has a disability to have access to employment, to participate or advance in employment, and to undertake training, unless the proposed measures would impose a disproportionate burden on the employer. This is known as Reasonable Accommodation, and universities have in place a range of policies and processes to fund and implement Reasonable Accommodations for staff with disabilities.
Reasonable accommodation can include:
- An accessible interview room/building
- Additional time, or facilitation of a preferred interview time
- Communication facilitation such as ISL interpretation
- Assistive Technology – for interview presentations
Code of practice
A broad range of policy and best practice information is available across the sector to support the operation of Reasonable Accommodations for persons with disability.
These include, for example the Disability Resource Pack from the NDA, guidance on Reasonable Accommodations at Work from AHEAD, as well as various Codes of Practice/policies on employment of persons with disability developed by institutions themselves, e.g. UCC, UCD , Maynooth University and Trinity College.
Ableism in academia
In December 2021 the Forum for Disabled Staff and Postgraduate Students in Trinity College Dublin launched the Ableism in Academia in Ireland report to mark International Day for Persons with Disabilities.
While highlighting the under-representation of disabled people in academic employment in Ireland and the significant hurdles that they face linked to ableism, the report serves as a catalyst for further discussion and action within Irish Higher Education.