Dr. Frank Conaty:

I thank Deputy Flaherty for the question on universal design. We need to talk about it more. There is a tendency to have an anxiety over it: that it is going to be too involved, that it will cost too much, that it will delay a project, and so on. It is a real challenge.

Inclusion, however, is the defining theme of the CRPD and if we do not grasp that, we will be guilty of supporting something that is regressive. We will be going backwards. We need to embrace the challenge and as legislators and policymakers, this is crucial.

In the case of universal design, we tend to default to the physical environment, but it is that as well as systems and processes, technology and services, all of which overlap to bring us to universal design for the lived environment as a whole, in an holistic way. It is a big challenge. My colleague, Dr. McDonagh, referred to the issue of trying to find a suitable bathroom facility. I recently went into a bathroom for disabled people and I could see immediately what was happening there. While it was accessible, the hand dryer was suspended about 6 ft above the floor. It is about being able to embrace universal design whereby it becomes internalised in everything we do. The Deputy mentioned a project earlier. If we do not do it from the beginning, we will, again, be guilty of taking a short-term decision that will yield a long-term cost. We need to grasp that principle when we talk about universal design for everyone. I recognise it is a challenge, but as a principle we need to embrace it wholly as legislators, policymakers and service providers.