Ms Jessica Ní Mhaoláin:

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil don choiste inniú for the valuable opportunity to explain the challenges I have faced as a blind person during my education and, more recently, in gaining employment. I would like to begin by referencing evidence provided by Ms Joan O'Donnell of the Disability Federation of Ireland to this committee in January 2018. She informed members that, between 2013 and 2016, unemployment dropped by 5.3% but that the rate of employment among people with disabilities increased by just 0.4%. Some 71% of adults of working age with a disability are not in work. This is a stark figure. More than two thirds of people with disabilities are unemployed. I have a job. I am part of the one third but it comes as no surprise to me that I am in a minority. I have a good job that I enjoy very much but I did not land there overnight. I would like to stress to members that so many others like me face the challenges that I have faced in looking for a job.

I have about two feet of clear vision and after that my world is blurry. I struggle to recognise faces, cannot read message or notice boards and need assistance in the simplest activities of life that most people would take for granted such as cutting bread or anything involving hand to eye co-ordination. When I started school in the 1990s, supports for someone with my limitations were few and far between. In 2002, after repeated assessments and appeals to then Department of Education and Science, I was granted the use of a laptop and given some resource teaching. As I am blind, I rely on sound, which is my primary way of learning. I was unable to read and write properly until I was almost nine. I was eventually granted a special needs assistant which enabled me to learn properly for the first time in my life. However, when I finished primary school I lost all of these services, which do not follow the student into second level education. At around the same time I was granted a medical card which was used to purchase low vision aids such as magnifiers, my white cane and monoculars which I use for notice boards. This timing is really important, given that I was in third year before I was granted any educational supports in school so I would have relied heavily on these low-vision aids.

Once my supports were in place my school marks began to pick up. According to my academic records, any time I was without supports my marks would drop, but as soon as they were reinstated my marks would improve again. To me that is simple proof that when persons with a disability are offered the correct supports in education they are just as capable of doing well as their schoolmates. I firmly believe that if my supports had been consistent throughout secondary school, I would not have failed examination after examination for two years. I also believe that if I had access to a lifelong assistive technology programme, as suggested by the Disability Federation of Ireland, DFI, and Enable Ireland in their 2016 discussion document, my school days would have been as normal as those of my classmates, instead of the constant struggle they were.

My special needs assistant, SNA, hours, were halved at the start of sixth year, which had a serious impact on my ability to revise and was horrendously stressful. I was unable to keep up in classes and had to be home-schooled for the remainder of the year with grinds to get me through my leaving certificate. Once I got to college I was thrilled to discover that things were much different. The disability support service in University College Cork could not have been more supportive. I was offered grinds and assistive technology and I had a note-taker. I was allowed to learn at my own speed and my independence, particularly through assistive technology, was encouraged and hugely supported. I completed my BSc in Public Health in 2014 and followed on with an MA in Government and Politics in 2016. My master's thesis focused on the impact of the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 on children with disabilities and the results are as I expected. Children with disabilities are not being supported in the way the legislation intended because, for the most part, it has not been meaningfully implemented.

After spending almost six years in college, I found myself struggling to find work, even with my qualifications. As soon as prospective employers saw my cane, there was a pitiful look and I would receive the "we regret to inform you" letter a week later. I have a drawer full of such letters at home. To counteract the blank spaces that were quickly filling up on my curriculum vitae, I volunteered or interned in sectors in which I had an interest. It was only last November when I attended an interview where my disability and my cane were not given a second glance by the interview panel. I succeeded in getting a job as a constituency assistant to Liadh Ní Riada, the Sinn Féin MEP for Ireland South. I have all the supports I could ask for in this job. I have a large monitor and a scanner and these supports provide me with the help I need to do the job to the best of my ability. My contract has just been renewed so I must be doing something right. This is surely anecdotal evidence that once a person with a disability is given the correct supports, he or she can work on a level playing field with colleagues.

However, with the good news comes a setback. When I was granted my medical card in the early 2000s I had more sight than what I have today. I have lost some of my peripheral vision in the past few years. I have had my medical card for almost 20 years. It was granted to me on medical grounds. However, when I notified the Health Service Executive that I had begun working my medical card was revoked. There was no appeals process open to me. If I want the medical card back I have to begin a new application process, which will take a number of months and will probably be refused again on financial grounds. I am highly unlikely to get my medical card back if I continue to do the job I worked so hard to get. This puts a financial strain on me which is not faced by people without disabilities. The HSE seems to believe my blindness was cured overnight when I got my job. It has not factored the cost of low-vision aids covered by my medical card into its online means test. There is no set price for these aids. Depending on the aid a person needs, the cost could be €100, €200 or €2,000 and upwards.

The current funding model for assistive technology in the workplace is also completely outdated. The HSE did not factor in the number of doctor and hospital visits I have each year. I had well over 30 such visits last year. While my financial circumstances may change throughout my life, my rights to health care, as a person with a disability, should never change. I am very happy the committee is investigating labour activation for people with disabilities because it is very much needed and welcomed. However, I earnestly appeal to the committee to consider the importance of lifelong access to assistive technology and medical supports when it publishes its report.

Challenges are faced by people with disabilities as they try to find employment. These challenges are not faced by people without a disability. Under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, people like me have a fundamental human right to full and effective participation and inclusion in society. However, that right is of little use unless the correct supports are in place along the way. People like me need assistive technology. We need consistent educational supports and accessible facilities to allow us to participate on a level playing-field with our peers. Accessibility is not just for buildings. It is for every aspect of our lives in society.