Accessibility – Page 3

Rapid Neonatal and Maternal Sepsis Detection in Resource Limited Environments

Social Technologies

Authors: Nicola Mountford, Assistant Professor, School of Business, Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL), Maynooth University and Sean Doyle, Professor, Department of Biology, Maynooth University

Neosepsis project logo, Sean Doyle, Nicola Mountford

Over 32,000 neonatal deaths occur per annum in Uganda, with sepsis accounting for 20% of this death rate – that’s 6,500 newborn babies who die of sepsis in just one country in the world. That’s not all, sepsis also accounts for almost a quarter of maternal deaths in Uganda. Our project, NEOSEPSIS, aims to reduce these numbers by introducing an easy-to-use, 15 minute lateral flow test to help to better diagnose sepsis in resource limited environments, such as Uganda.

The test detects Serum amyloid A, or SAA – a globally validated biomarker of sepsis. The lateral flow test used in this process is very similar to the type of antigen test that you might have used to help diagnose whether or not you had Covid-19. It is just as user-friendly, rapid, and equipment-free as one of those Covid antigen tests. This makes it particularly suited to environments where it might be difficult to take, store and transport samples.

The Right to Health of Vulnerable and Marginalised People in Ireland

Social Structures

Author: Ollie Bartlett, Assistant Professor of Law, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University

Ollie Bartlett

The world was clearly inadequately prepared to fight Covid-19. An important factor in this was the inadequacy of public health law frameworks at international, regional and national level. Political attention quickly turned to the creation of a new pandemic treaty and the revision of supranational rules concerning cross-border health threats, comparatively little attention has been placed upon the role that the right to health should have played in shaping Covid-19 policy, or what role it should play in the future development of public health policy.

I have written on this question in the Irish context, and concluded that the debate begun in 2019 on the need for a right to health in the Irish Constitution is worth returning to. A constitutional right to health would support clearer and more proportionate public health decision-making, and may facilitate more direct challenges to government policies that have unacceptable or inappropriate consequences for health outcomes.

‘Lived Fiction’ – First sharing of Inclusive Contemporary Dance Choreography within the DANCING Project

Social Lives

Authors: Ann Leahy, Post-doctoral Researcher, and Delia Ferri, Professor of Law, ERC Project DANCING, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University

DANCING: Researching Disability and Diversity in Culture

The Project “Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths (DANCING)”, based at the ALL Institute, reached an important milestone at the end of February 2023. The initial work on an inclusive and accessible piece of contemporary dance created by Lucy Bennett and Stopgap Dance Company for DANCING was performed in Dublin in front of an invited audience. The work will be fully ready next year, and we are already looking forward to the world premiere in Dublin in early 2024.

The image shows Stopgap Dance company during the choreography. The image shows dancers from different ethnical backgrounds some of whom on a wheelchair.

On 24^th February 2023, Stopgap shared their work-in-progress in a pre-staging fashion, and without costumes or lighting at DanceHouse in a dedicated event organised in collaboration with Dance Ireland. ‘Lived Fiction’ – the title of the work being created by Lucy Bennett and collaborators from Stopgap – is an original piece of choreography that is performed by a group of disabled and non-disabled dancers and endeavours to be accessible to all. Stopgap’s devising process is based on key inclusive methods that the company has collectively developed and is a living example of how society should and could be, valuing the richness that comes from diversity. Experimenting and working on accessibility for both dancers and audience allows for a deep understanding of what accessibility really means. However, this choreographic work is also meant to be a “tool for change” by raising awareness on inclusive cultural participation.

GoGreenRoutes: Near Nature: Green Space and Environmental Justice

Social Lives

Authors: GoGreenRoutes Academy Cluster Members – Maria Fernandez de Osso Fuentes, PhD Researcher in the School of Business; Maynooth University, Cassandra Murphy, PhD Researcher in the Psychology Department of Maynooth University, Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL); and Alan Scarry, PhD Researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Limerick. All authors are funded by the H2020 project GoGreenRoutes.

The GoGreenRoutes Academy

Flyer of the Conference on Near Nature: Green Space and Environmental Justice — Conference on Near Nature: Green Space and Environmental Justice

Maynooth University, and ALL Institute project GoGreenRoutes (GGR) has a unique component referred to as an ‘Academy Cluster.’ Scientific Coordinator Professor Tadhg Macintyre established the academy at the start of the GGR project, and it has thrived over the past three years. Currently, Cassie Murphy, Maria Fernandez de Osso Fuentes, and Alan Scarry, all PhD Researchers within the project, oversee the GGR academy. The Academy is a meeting forum for PhD Researchers and other Early Career Researchers to discuss progress and gaps in their individual learning. It was developed to give the researchers an opportunity to acquire new knowledge and develop new abilities from a range of outstanding speakers in a variety of sectors. The researchers themselves then took on the role of teachers, imparting their knowledge to any incoming academy members. Since the academy’s inception, each member has been given two distinct skill profiles: one for skills they seek to learn, the other for skills they wish to teach. Then, at this forum, each academy member has the chance to speak and acquire new abilities. Based on a method implemented by Professor John Gallagher, who works on the GGR project, researchers are urged to evaluate their own development. By assessing their own skills and identifying knowledge or education gaps that can be filled for professional advancement and personal growth, the researchers are also able to monitor the progress of their own research projects through participation in academy activities.

Blog 3: Systems Thinking in Research: Considering Interrelationships in Research Through Rich Pictures

Stories/Lived Experiences

Authors: Bob Williams, Systems Thinking Practitioner, Trainer and Evaluator – Consultant. Joan O’Donnell, Systems Thinking Trainer and PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute, Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

1st year ADVANCE CRT Student Induction, Cork January 20
A number of people are standing in a circle, one of them is speaking. — *1st year ADVANCE CRT Student Induction, Cork January 2023*

Let’s start with a true story. It follows on from our last blog about focus and scope. But it highlights our tendency to start with focusing in on the subject of our research–with boundary setting–rather than considering the wider scope, especially when faced with ‘a problem’ that we hope our research will address. Stating that something is a ‘problem’ is a form of boundary setting, as we will see.

United Nations International Day of Education 24^th January 2023 – How the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Denies Access to Education for Millions of Ukrainians

Social Lives

Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL Institute), Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

Matthew McKenna

The 24^th of January 2023 was the UN International Day of Education, whilst today, the 24^th of February, represents the first anniversary of the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that began a year ago as of this morning. This blogpost will address the unfathomable human rights crisis and tragedy that has befallen the Ukrainian people and the subsequent denial of access to education in wartime.

“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war” – Dr Maria Montessori.

Montessori, was an Italian medical doctor who pioneered the philosophy of education through her work with children with disabilities, starting in 1896. She delivered the above quote in the late 1930s while working on the ‘Education for Peace’ movement during her exile from Italy due to the anti-fascist ethos of her humanitarian work. Montessori believed that a lasting unity between nations and peoples could be achieved when the education of children was underpinned with the values of international peace and humanitarianism. Moreover, her work has had a profound impact on the gradual educational reforms that have slowly enabled persons with disabilities to enter education and has helped, albeit over time, to reduce the traditionally punitive and penal institutional approach to children experiencing learning difficulties. And as we marked the UN International Day of Education a month ago on 24^th January 2023, her words sound just as relevant in today’s context as they were in the agitated pre-war climate of the late 1930s.

The Ideas in ALL Blog Welcomes Three New Editors

*Cassandra Murphy, Neasa Boyle, Opeyemi Kolawole*

Dear readers of Ideas in All,

With the start of 2023, we are very pleased to announce that the Ideas in ALL Blog has welcomed three new members to its team of editors. In line with the blog’s consistent growth over the past year, we aim to continue sharing the expanding interdisciplinary research conducted by the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute and its collaborators, and to highlight key policy developments occurring at the national, European and international level.

Before presenting the new editors, Cassie, Neasa and Opeyemi, we would like to warmly thank our outgoing ALL-Blog Editorial Manager, Stacy Campbell, for her amazing work throughout the years. In her footsteps, our revamped team will endeavor to bring you timely commentaries on current topics and ongoing research from a rich network of experts in a number of fields including, to name a few; disability, psychology, law, public health and social policy.

Here are our new members!

Is Social Sustainability the Forgotten Pillar of Sustainable Development?

Social Structures

Symposium

Author: Ruth O’Reilly, Senior Built Environment Design Advisor, Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, National Disability Authority

Here at the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, we often use this quotation from the designer, Victor Papanek, to explain the focus of our work:

The only important thing about design is how it relates to people

Quotation 'The only important thing about design is how it relates to people' alongside an image of a book with the title Design for the Real Workld, by Victor Papanek. — Figure 1: Quotation from Design for the Real World by Victor Papenek (1971)

A key tenet of Universal Design is that good design works well for everyone. Sometimes however, it seems that social sustainability is the forgotten pillar of sustainable development. How can we persuade designers that taking a Universal Design approach – designing for all people, regardless of their age, size, ability or disability – is a key element of sustainable development?

First Time Conference: DANCING to Italy

Stories/Lived Experiences

Author: Eva Krolla is a Research Assistant in the ERC-funded DANCING project at the School of Law and Criminology and Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Maynooth University.

DANCING Project Team Maynooth (Left to Right) Ann Leahy, Eva Krolla, Iryna Tekuchova, Hilary Hooks, Delia Ferri and Lea Urzel — DANCING Project Team, Maynooth University

5.45 am, the alarm is ringing, as scheduled. A little early, even for people like me who like to think of themselves as ‘morning people’. And it is true, I have little difficultly getting up. But it is accompanied by a subtle nervousness – do I have everything? Did I pack everything we need, better double-check that the USB key works. Done! I quickly brew some coffee and take a deep breath. Phone, keys, passport, boarding pass, laptop, USB key (double-check that one) and hand luggage – got everything. As the taxi slowly approaches the front door, I quietly leave the apartment, barely 6.30 in the morning. Subtle nervousness turning into excitement… This is my first conference with the DANCING team!

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