ALL Institute – Page 5

‘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!

The Other 73%: Changing our Perspectives when Conducting Dementia Treatment

Social Structures

Author: Sowmya Shrivastava, 3rd year BSc Psychology Student, Maynooth University, Research Intern for Mac MacLachlan at the ALL Institute

There is a growing realization that hospital employees and services must comprehend the complexities of caring for and treating dementia patients. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that dementia rates will double every 20 years, reaching up to 115·4 million people with a diagnosis in 2050. A number of underlying neuropathological symptoms can lead to the diagnosis, which can create problems when trying to differentiate dementia from psychiatric disorders as the disease is found to often mimic them in presentation. Due to this, there is a broad research area in matters concerning the treatments and interventions for patients with dementia. Doctors and researchers have found that the disease modifying antibody drug Lecanemab slowed the decline in memory and mental agility by 27% in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease but what about the other 73%? What steps can be taken to aid the other, larger part of people living with this degenerative disease?

A unimodal approach has been the most obvious route researchers have taken in order to find a cure for dementia; meaning that only one type of treatment route is used for treating the patient. However there is a downside to this one sided view. By conducting a research review on studies carried out who either took a pharmacological stand or a psychosocial step towards treatments for patients, it was found that both have delivered inadequate results in terms of validity and reliability. The data within research statistically shows that by solely applying a single approach to treating patients, i.e., only psychosocial interventions without administering any drug treatment, the rate of dementia development is slowed, but only at a miniscule level.

The Psychology of Climate Change: T(h)ree Thoughts on Eco Anxiety

Social Structures

Authors: Dr Tadhg MacIntyre, Assistant Professor, Maynooth University (MU) Department of Psychology, Scientific Coordinator of the H2020 Project GoGreenRoutes, Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL), and Dr Annalisa Setti, University College Cork (UCC), Member of GoGreenRoutes’ Advisory Board.

Tadhg McIntyre and Annalisa Setti

“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it”, Barack Obama, 43^rd President of the United States.

In this blog, Dr Tadhg MacIntyre (MU) and Dr Annalisa Setti (UCC) outline some of the known and unknown impacts of climate change on mental health.

1. Known Knowns: Climate Change Solutions

Climate change has consequences for our mental health in both the short-term (e.g. extreme climatic events) and long-term (e.g. existential threat), ranging from trauma to anxiety. How we cope with the challenge of climate change has implications for our ability to generate, engage with and promote solutions. Getting a handle on what some term the climate ‘emergency’ should be seen in the context of how we cope with other interlinked issues – all of which can potentially benefit from our attempts to mitigate climate change impacts. Biodiversity loss, obesity, sedentary behaviour, isolation and nature disconnection are not entirely unrelated from climate change issues.

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?

Developing a Sustainable, Needs-based Roadmap for Social and Assistive Robots for Older Care

Social Technologies

Symposium

Authors: Louise Veling is a Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher with the Horizon 2020 SHAPES Project as part of the Assisted Living and Learning (ALL) Institute / Department of Engineering at Maynooth University. Rudi Villing is a Lecturer with the School of Engineering at Maynooth University, Programme Director of the BSc in Robotics & Intelligence Devices, member of the Hamilton Institute and associate director of the Assisted Living and Learning (ALL) institute.

Left to Right Rudi Villing, Louise Veling — Rudi Villing and Louise Veling

Few people would dispute the importance of centring older people’s needs when it comes to developing assistive technologies. For assistive robots, this is even more important. As in other fields, within robotics and human-robot interaction (HRI) research, older people are often subject to stereotypical representations and ageist attitudes. Assistive robots are also still in their infancy, with few yet deployed in practice, so there is still some distance to go before robots make it out of the lab and into the real world. What they will be capable of and how they will be used is still in a process of negotiation.

An Interview with Stephanie Ortoleva, Founder of Women Enabled International (November 14^th, 2022)

Stories/Lived Experience

Symposium

Author: Dr Ana María Sánchez Rodríguez, MSCA Fellow and Adjunct Assistant Professor of the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute

Stephanie Ortoleva and Ana Maria Sanchez Rodriguez — Stephanie Ortoleva and Ana María Sánchez Rodríguez

Stephanie Ortoleva, founder of Women Enabled International (WEI) advocates for women and girls with disabilities. She says that, “disabled women are organizing for ourselves because we have found that other movements, whether it’s the women’s rights movement or the disability rights movement, very often don’t include our issues as the key points of their advocacy. Disabled women just aren’t going to be silent anymore” (Ford Foundation, 2020).

In the summer of 2012, I started my research journey as an intern for WEI. WEI wanted to help and join the work on the revision of laws in India and globally. The central issue was violence against women and girls with disabilities. The same year, Stephanie and Hope Lewis published a seminal work on violence against women with disabilities called: Forgotten Sisters – A Report on Violence Against Women with Disabilities: An Overview of its Nature, Scope, Causes and Consequences.

Continue reading Women Enabled International (November 14^th, 2022)”

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