Ms Mary Finn:

It is a pleasure to be here. I thank the Chairman and members for the opportunity to have an input to this committee meeting. I work in the area of vocational rehabilitation with a particular focus on the workplace and employee retention. I would like to take this opportunity to draw attention to the connection between our present-day students, their education and the workforce of the future.

Since the arrival of Covid-19, all of us, as a global community, have a deeper appreciation for easy and unlimited access to products and services in the pursuit of living our lives in whatever manner we would like to. We have learned the value of easy access by living through the various restrictions of the past two years. Yet for many people with disabilities, restrictions in how they live their lives is part of their daily lives. As we near the two-year anniversary of Covid restrictions, discussions such as today's are timely. The purpose of the UNCRPD is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities.

The Irish education system, through legislation such the Education Act 1998, Education (Welfare) Act 2000 and Education for Persons with Special Education Needs Act 2004, promotes both access and participation in education by confirming the constitutional right of children to education. Second-level students are currently preparing for mock examinations and filling in their CAO forms. They are trying to figure out what they will do after school and what life will hold for them. How will the education system serve them to ensure a future where everybody is equitably included in life and can progress through all levels of education and into the workforce? There may be more questions here than answers but I believe that part of what today is about is to reflect on how the provision of education in Ireland aligns with the UNCRPD in creating an inclusive society.

Article 24 of the convention requires the provision of an inclusive education system at all levels so people can reach their full potential and participate effectively in a free society. It further specifies ways in which people with disabilities are to be included by ensuring effective individualised support measures and reasonable accommodations are provided in environments that maximise academic and social development consistent with the goal of full inclusion.

I would like to focus on this goal of social development. It is not just the person with the disability who needs the social development but his or her peers as well. I grew up with a very limited understanding of disability as there were no children with disabilities in my school. Never having had any connection to a person with a disability, people with disabilities were invisible to me for many years and so it is for countless others until they are confronted with a health condition, injury or alteration to life as they know it and everything changes.

Returning to work after an illness or injury can be challenging but it is not impossible if workplaces are open to talking through options. Unfortunately, many have limited experience of disability management in the workplace and are unsure where to start. As a result, the absence is unnecessarily prolonged and, in some cases, results in exit from the workforce.

Let us imagine the transformation to the workforce of the future if all present-day children grew up with a better understanding of disability and learned in classrooms surrounded by children of all capabilities, where differences are not seen in negative terms but are supported through a variety of teaching methods, embracing all learning styles, and where teachers who themselves have disabilities teach and where Braille or sign language resources are readily available, as referenced in Article 24. That is what inclusive education looks like. Students graduate and emerge into the working world with an understanding of disability and a positive experience of inclusion; they have begun to cultivate a more inclusive mindset from a young age. Students with disabilities will have a richer learning experience and be able to compete on a more equal platform for jobs in the open labour market.

I believe our students of today need to learn about principles of universal design regardless of their field of study. They need to learn to ask questions about how people interact with the built environment, products and services. They need to ask how these interactions change as we go through life and perhaps acquire disabilities or health conditions as we age. They need to ask themselves how the work environment can support this transition and know that the answer is by designing systems of work and jobs that are universally accessible to all, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialised design. Today's students are our future leaders, product and system engineers, recruitment managers and architects who will design our future cities, grow organisations and create a society that is inclusive and open to exploring options that serve everybody.

I am sure many of the members here today will have heard said it is society that disables people, creates barriers of accessibility and excludes people. Our students of today need to listen to the voice of people with disabilities so that they can create, with intent, an inclusive future world. To do that, they need to graduate from a system that everybody has been part of.

In preparing for today, I asked some primary school teachers their experience of disability in their classrooms. In addition to their desire to have more special needs assistants, SNAs, their responses included the need for more training in how to better support disability. Some were clear on the need for specific training on supporting children with autism and were in agreement that more training of this nature should be mandatory.

I trust my contribution today has bridged a gap in making the connection of our present-day students being captains of industry for tomorrow coming from an inclusive system that has supported all needs equitably. I thank the members for their time.