Author: James Cawley, Maynooth University Alumnus, Business Development Executive at the Irish Centre for Diversity, Disability Rights Activist, and Member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Disability Advisory Committee
Research Stream: Lived Experience
First, I want to extend my sincere congratulations to the ALL Institute team in marking the sixth anniversary of the ALL Institute at Maynooth University. Equally, I am delighted to contribute to the end of year symposium for the third anniversary of the Ideas in ALL Blog.
My name is James Cawley, I have contributed to the ALL Blog over the last 3 years. For me, the Blog remains an important channel to showcase empowerment and tackle social exclusion.
Since it’s inception, I have highlighted many critical issues impacting upon my rights as a Disabled Person including equality, accessibility, inclusion, and equity.
I am a proud Disabled Person, I am a son, brother, husband, friend, taxpayer, disability advocate and a Longford native. My career to date spans across Education (Secondary/Higher and Further Education), working in policy for a National Disabled Persons Organisation (DPO), and now Business Development for the Irish Centre for Diversity.
Over the years I have been privileged to add my voice to the ALL Blog, as a tool that champions a person-centred approach and the expertise of Disabled People from all aspects of society. Moreover, the ethos of the ALL Institute strives to ensure that all people, across their lives, have the support and opportunity to participate fully throughout their life course. This ethos aligns closely with my own personal values of inclusivity, accessibility, respect for diversity, and participation.
When writing this blog, I have taken the opportunity to reflect on my own year and journey through to employment to date.
In September 2023, I was truly honoured to accept the Business Support Professional of the Year Award at the Lincoln Recruitment Early Irish Career Awards. In my acceptance speech, I shared with the audience “My journey began where my parents were told “I’d never write” and I was a “bit of bad luck” – I faced barriers too where I was told I shouldn’t, I couldn’t and I wouldn’t belong to a system and world that wasn’t built for me. However, I proved that I could, I would, and I should follow my dreams and ambitions”.
Being the youngest of 9 children, I’m a bit of a ‘divil’ for taking risks – I qualified as a teacher but dropped the classroom books to venture into a career to professionally support Disabled People to secure our rights at a national level. It is at this point I had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Laura O’Donovan Calvert and Caroline Cummins where I was asked to do a few speaking gigs for the Irish Centre for Diversity. This interaction fired a new passion within me, and I am now approaching my first anniversary as their Business Development Executive.
I truly love and adore the work we do in the Irish Centre for Diversity and I get to go to work every day “as myself”, my opinions, my lived experience and expertise truly valued”. Accepting this award was a proud moment for me in my career. Changing career is often daunting, however, I have, so far, taken these “moves” to add to my experience, skillset, and personal and professional development.
Outside of work, I still engage in Disability advocacy/activism – I love connecting with people, sharing solutions, and challenging policies, structures and systems that exclude people.
In May of this year, I was thrilled to be selected to go to the European Parliament for the Fifth European Parliament of Persons with Disabilities (EPPD). It was an incredible experience to be able to bring my lived experience and activism to a European collective space.
The delegation was a strong and committed team of disabled people with diverse perspectives and lived experience who engaged with their disabled colleagues from all member states. I think it is so important, now, more than ever, that Disabled People speak up ourselves or join a collective space where they feel they can be heard.
As an activist, I am continuously looking at ways to bring that single advocacy piece into collective activism and, in this sense, it’s not that these issues get solved for any one person, but instead, we are looking at eradicating systems, policies and structures that exclude rather than include. Most recently in Ireland, there was a serious threat to Disabled People’s services over pay parity. Through collaboration with a group of likeminded Disabled People we activated politicians, the media and People with Disabilities on the ground-level by representing the lived experience perspective. As a direct result, we were invited to Government buildings to build on our advocacy, which I am looking forward to engaging with in the future on other issues that impact People with Disabilities at a local, regional, national and European and international level. This is vitally important, because I believe, we are rich in policy development in Ireland, but poor in our implementation of our policies despite ratification of the UNCRPD.
In my experience when disability is discussed, people are afraid of “saying” or “doing” the “wrong thing”. It is evident there is an understanding and “move” from the medical model of disability to the social model of disability and a human rights-based approach here in Ireland and more broadly. However, as part of our identity and sense of belonging, we need to recognise the role of language. There are many words and terms that are used to identify disability, both in Ireland and internationally, and the way these words are understood differs across diverse groups of people and in different languages. Page one of the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022 to 2027 respectfully acknowledges the ways people prefer to identify in relation to their impairment. While ‘Identity First Language’ i.e., “’Disabled Person/People’ is used in the social model of disability, especially in the UK and in Ireland, we must not discount that some people prefer to use ‘Person First Language’.” For example, many Disabled People I know who have Intellectual Impairment(s) prefer to use person first language i.e., “Person with an Intellectual Disability” as opposed to “Intellectually Disabled Person/People.” Person First Language is also used, and generally preferred, in the UNCRPD, and more broadly in the European and international contexts and in many languages other than English. There is no denying of the emotive power of language and its importance within the disability community. It is vital that, as we continue to reclaim our power through Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs) or as individual activists , we support the use of terms that leave no person behind and respect diversity and intersectionality.
In terms of that real inclusion of all Disabled people we need to look at our environment and the barriers that continue to exclude us. Accessibility means different things for different people. Often, it is thought about as a ramp, or step free access, but what about accessibility more broadly, websites, information, communication. Consultations processes are often not fully accessible. Many consultations aimed at including DPOs or individual disabled people actively exclude us through inaccessible documentations, such as PDF documents that are not accessible by people who use assistive technology such as screen readers. In addition, people should not be forced only to email their comments into a process. This is not inclusive and there should be alternatives methods to “voice your concerns – add comments” should you want to. This is vitally important considering the realisation of the UNCRPD locally, regionally, nationally, and in all policy forums, given Articles 9 and 21 of the UNRCPD.
In conclusion, just as this Blog celebrates another year, I too celebrate the achievements of the Irish Disability Community. It is almost 32 years since Independent Living was introduced to these shores. Although there is no denying that we are a long way from true realisation of the UN CRPD we are making positive strides in that direction. As an activist and Disabled Person, I like to think I am making a tiny contribution to this change. However, it is only together as Disabled People and with our supporters that we can realise the true inclusion of all People with Disabilities in all aspects of our society.
Links to all blog posts for this symposium.
Around ALL in Seven Blog Posts… Prof. Delia Ferri, Prof. Mac MacLachlan, Prof. Deirdre Desmond
Celebrating the Third Anniversary of the ‘Ideas in ALL Blog’ in the 2023 Winter Symposium; a Commentary from the Editorial Team
Building a Digitally Wealthy society with the support of the ALL Institute
Reflecting on a Journey of Meaningful Impact: Celebrating with the ALL-Institute
Developing the Campus as a Healthy Environment: The MU Healthy Campus Steering Group