Author: All Institute

European Union Disability Policies after 2020: Back to the Future – Easy to Read Version

Social Structures

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Easy to Read Version

Author: Delia Ferri – Co-Director of the ALL Institute, Department of Law, Maynooth University. EtR Translation Hilary Hooks

Flags flying together at the European Union Building

Ireland is one of a group of countries in Europe called the European Union. 

The European Union works to make Europe better.

A younger man helping an older man

In 2010 The European Union made a plan to promote the rights of people with disabilities.

EDS PLan

This plan is called the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 (EDS).

It was a plan for 10 years.   The plan is now coming to an end.

Evaluation - sad, neutral smiley face

It is time to think about what has changed for the better and what the next plan should include.   

Continue reading “European Union Disability Policies after 2020: Back to the Future – Easy to Read Version”

Education and Joy

Social Lives

Author: Derek Barter, ALL Institute, Department of Adult and Community Education, Maynooth University

The words ‘Education’ and ‘Joy’ do not sit naturally in the same sentence – at least that is what I have come to find. A few years ago, when our son was about eight or nine years old, I was preparing a PowerPoint slide for a talk on Lifelong Learning and Continuing Education.  He read the slide and looked at me, his eyes brimming with fear and disappointment and said, ‘You mean school goes on forever?’ I reassured him that with luck and time off for good behaviour his sentence could be up in another eight years or so if that is what he wanted.  School and Learning are not the same thing.

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Creating this Accessible Blog Site: Taking small steps to making accessibility a reality

Social Technologies

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Author:  Hilary Hooks, Department of Law, ALL Institute, Maynooth University

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Earlier this year I was tasked with creating an accessible blogsite for the ALL Institute.  While I welcomed the opportunity to do so, my background and expertise is that of an administrator, with little web accessibility experience.  The process of making this blog site as accessible as possible has been a steep learning curve for me and I would like to share some of my new-found understanding of the issues and accessibility tools. 

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) states that access to “information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems” is a human right (Article 9 CRPD), and, among other things, requires States Parties to the Convention to ensure that websites are accessible to people with disabilities.

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New Section: Stories/ Lived Experiences

Stories/ Lived Experience

Author: Delia Ferri, ALL Institute, Department of Law, Maynooth University

We have decided to include a new section in this blog that will gather emotions and insights into people’s real lives.

We will learn about people’s habits, ways of seeing and doing, perceptions, reactions to norms and power-relations. We will learn about life trajectories, transitions and transformations during the course of a lifetime. We will also learn about turning points – critical moments in which people change their directions – where they take another pathway. In some we will learn about the way in which social structures, social lives and social technologies impact on people’s every-day experiences, and shape their contexts and their opportunities.

‘You’re a teacher you’re a mother, you’re a worker’: Gender inequality during Covid-19 in Ireland.

Social Lives

Authors: Katriona O’Sullivan, Serena Clark and Amy McGrane
ALL Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University

Mam is in a meeting (online) do not enter - and stay quiet!
My lock-down experience

When the schools closed in April of 2020, I found myself in the most stressful parenting situation of my entire parenting life. I was left to manage the education needs of my 3 sons; all of whom were at very different stages of their education journey. My studious, stressed-out 15-year-old was about to sit his Junior Cert, while the 11-year-old was in 5th class and the carefree 16-year-old in 5th year. As the ‘educated’ parent in our house and the mother, I was suddenly expected to manage much more than I normally would have. I am already in charge of most of the shopping, cleaning etc. and now the home-schooling too. I remember looking at my husband from across the top of my son’s laptop, after several failed attempts to log-in to Aladdin, thinking – we are not going to make it through this unless something changes. I also remember celebrating the night they announced that the Junior Cert was cancelled AND the constant guilty feeling I had because I let them all sleep late so I could get my own work done. As an academic working in education, and researching technology, I really had no idea how much stress education can bring to a family. Likewise about how hard I would find it adding home-schooling onto the other burdens I carry as a women and mother. I know I am not alone. My friends, colleagues and family feel the same. I have chosen to share some of my personal and research observations from the last few months to highlight some of the gender disparities that are being exacerbated by the pandemic in many homes across the island of Ireland.  (Dr Katriona O’Sullivan)

Continue reading “‘You’re a teacher you’re a mother, you’re a worker’: Gender inequality during Covid-19 in Ireland.”

Building a European Health Union

Social Structures

Author: Dr Emma McEvoy, Postdoctoral Researcher, SHAPES Project, ALL Institute, Department of Law, Maynooth University.

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Dr. Emma McEvoy

Less than a year ago, the sudden and somewhat unpredicted outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic across Europe pushed most national health systems to their limits. Healthcare workers faced the brunt of the pandemic, dealing with shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), medical supplies, medicines and coping with Intensive Critical Units (ICU) bed shortages. The European Union (EU) as a whole was not prepared for the Covid-19 outbreak, and neither were any of the Member States. Society and the economy appeared to pause in time to support and allow front-line workers to navigate through the early chaos of the first wave of the pandemic. Many areas of society and the economy have yet to recover and re-start from this initial pause. This is also true of health systems. All EU countries, to some extent, paused or limited normal hospital operations, ranging from postponing routine cancer checks, to cancelling elective surgeries to some hospital day services.

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Me and My Diabetes

Stories/ Lived Experience

World Diabetes Day 14 November Logo

Authors: Layla May and Deirdre Forde, ALL Institute, Maynooth University

This story was written by Layla May and supported by Deirdre Forde, who is a member of the ALL Institute, Maynooth University. 

The lived experience piece authored by little Layla May aims to mark the World Diabetes Day, which is celebrated on 14th  November  every year. It also aims to raise awareness about children with diabetes and their experience.

What is Type 1 Diabetes?

Diabetes mellitus Type 1 (T1DM) is a chronic autoimmune condition in which the pancreas stops making the hormone insulin. Insulin helps control blood glucose levels and allows glucose (from carbohydrate in the diet) to move from the blood into body cells for energy. The brain uses glucose as fuel so low blood glucose levels are dangerous in the short term and if not recognised and treated can result in collapse and seizure. High blood sugars can lead to other complications for someone with diabetes.

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Welcome to Ideas in ALL – Easy to Read Version

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Easy to Read Version

Welcome to the blog of the ALL Institute – in Maynooth University, Ireland.

Map of Ireland

We are researchers and we work at a university in Ireland.

We have created this blog.

A blog is a website that is updated often with ‘posts’.

Posts are articles or videos on a website.

Each part of the blog is written by a different researcher.

The name of our blog is “Ideas in ALL”.

We want to use the blog to:

  • tell you what we do
  • tell you about new ideas, and
  • comment on what is happening in the world now.
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