It shouted “indifference” on the part of every individual who had a role in building that street — architects, planning authority and builders — as well as disregard for the building regulations.
For a person with a disability whose “rights” are enshrined in the Equal Status Act, it gives a clear signal — you don’t belong in this neighbourhood.
This hammered home the reality that life for people with disabilities is still challenging today, just as it was in the Ireland of the 1940s, when parents, clinicians and dedicated volunteers sowed the seeds of a National Association for Cerebral Palsy.
Then the challenge was to find financial resources and provide therapeutic services. As the decades passed, a welcome revolution in service provision unfolded. Now the challenge is for real and meaningful living as equal partners in society and in the workplace.
It’s more than 10 years since I joined the Board of Enable Ireland. In that time, our expertise in working with disability has spread throughout Ireland. State funding is increasing all the time. Equality and disability legislation has strengthened the rights of people with disabilities. We’ve come a long way, but not far enough.
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How can the social awareness and attitudes that foster opportunities for inclusion, independence and choice be embedded in how we organise our homes, our workplaces and our society? Some companies, including Microsoft and Vodafone, are engaging in real meaningful partnership with Enable Ireland as part of their responsibility programmes. Business in the Community, a countrywide business network, has made a real difference.
Other companies are taking advantage of the financial benefits available to employers who promote workplace inequality.
For people with disabilities, a job is more than an economic issue. It’s all about inclusion and self-esteem. We all need to work.
It is a battle of hearts and minds. It will involve change — in attitudes and in experience.
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We will have to go far beyond policy changes and grants to employers; if these are not followed by action and jobs, society will fail people with disabilities and their families.
Action on disability is a responsibility for all, for each and every one of us, whether at home, in school, at work or at leisure. We should not have to be asked or reminded by those of us who already live or accompany people with disability.
Equality and inclusion means that everyone has a place on the playing field. Priority seating on the sidelines is simply not good enough in 2006.
Tomorrow, the taoiseach launches Enable Ireland’s national blueprint for future disability services nationwide. Our journey for the next three years will involve us in financial expenditure of some €100m of state resources, and investment of up to €20m capital to develop and enhance our facilities, much of which will have to be raised through private fundraising and from our shops’ network.
Our economic success must be mirrored in the quality of our social action and generosity of spirit to all.
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Donal Cashman
chairman of Enable Ireland