Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 15 October 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills
Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion
11:00 am
Ms Eithne Walsh:
In representing parents, we know that what happened in that case is very common. It applies to transition year trips, where people cannot go unless the SNA comes. Schools will have different policies but, very often, either students bring a parent or they pay for the SNA to go, and sometimes the SNA is not allowed to go. What it reinforces all the time is the other - you are different; you are other. That is what we are trying to get away from here. Being left out of PE is also very ad hoc.
As I alluded to earlier, it is about how competent your parent is in advocating for you. That is such inequality. It is totally dependent on whether the parent came up through the system. My kids went through quite well because I was able to work part-time and I was at the school all the time.
That is just not good enough, not in this day and age. With regard to PE and all that, it will be the same thing. Parents will not want their child to get injured. It is part of their education to learn their physical literacy skills and that is all a prerequisite to orientation and mobility. The schools need to have skills in how to support a visually impaired child. When the mother says she does not want the child getting hit by a ball, they have to say it is very important and tell her what they do. The Deputy is making a really important point. That part is not really in the curriculum either, it is very ad hocand needs to be incorporated.
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