Ms Eileen Daly:

I want to address the issues around employment. We need to go back a lot further to consider why disabled people, both women and men, do not see employment as a right for themselves. We need to look at how a disabled child is given a label or diagnosis. Whether or not we realise it, we all make assumptions. Our expectations for children with disabilities as they grow into teenagers and adults are different from those for their non-disabled counterparts. Fortunately, mainstream education is becoming more inclusive, but we still have a way to go. This is something about which I feel very strongly. We were getting there but there still is a way to go. As members will know, within the special education system, which is a term I like, there is currently no career guidance available to disabled students. I would argue that even in mainstream education, where people need bespoke information or services, teachers and other education professionals do not have adequate information or expertise to deal with specific issues students need to be addressed.

Difficulty in accessing education at third level is still a barrier for many people. This comes back to a lack of expectation in the first place and the lack of a flexible curriculum to accommodate diverse learning styles and abilities. How then can employment even be accessible to many disabled women? We know from the research and statistics that, generally for girls, there is a very low uptake of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, subjects, and this is even more the case for disabled girls. I work a lot with individual women and groups of women who want to challenge themselves and move into employment and meaningful careers of their choice. It is all about raising expectations, providing information and supporting people to get where they want to go.

The other side of that is supporting employers. We need to open a dialogue with them, answer their questions and help them to navigate the system and provide reasonable accommodations that will support disabled employees to be productive and to move up the employment ladder if they so wish. If part-time employment or volunteering is what somebody wants, it should not be frowned upon. We all have a right to contribute in whatever way we want in order to be our best selves. Paid employment is something to which many people aspire.

However, if it is something that a person is unable to participate in for whatever reason despite wanting to, we need to think outside the box and adapt policies to accommodate that.