Tag: covid 19

A Right to Repair for Medical Devices?

Social Technologies

Author: Dr Opeyemi Kolawole (Post-doctoral Researcher, PatentInHuman Project)

Dr Opeyemi Kolawole
Dr Opeyemi Kolawole

Medical devices are integral to healthcare service delivery. Patients and healthcare service providers utilise these devices to diagnose, prevent, monitor, alleviate, and restore impaired body functions. Depending on the complexities of these devices and how they are deployed, they can become integrated with the patient’s body, and the patient’s healthy functioning and life may become dependent on the device (for example, an insulin pump or a pacemaker). Yet, like every other device, medical devices are susceptible to wear and tear: embedded software in the device may become obsolete over time, and physical elements may become deficient, making a device unsuitable for the patient’s needs. What options are available to the patient or health service provider in such instances? Should they, or a trusted repairer, be allowed to repair these devices? Patients and hospitals confronted this question at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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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 Profile picture
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. 

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ALL and the Dept. of Adult and Community Education Addiction/Psychology Seminar Growing Space: Recovery, Education and Capability

Stories/Lived Experiences

Author: Deirdre Delaney, accredited psychotherapist (M.I.A.H.I.P, MCPI) and a tutor with the department of adult and community education in Maynooth University.

Deirdre Delaney Profile Picture
Deirdre Delaney

The Adult Education programme run by Maynooth University reaches all parts of Ireland. Every year our Addiction and Psychology certificate and diploma programmes gather from all around the country to share a day of presentations and workshops on the Maynooth campus. It is a very important day in our academic calendar but of course over the last two years we were unable to gather. Though an online day was organised, the pandemic never felt more real. Students and tutors alike missed the opportunity to be together with others on campus. For many students it will be their first time to set foot on a university campus. I always hope that it won’t be their last time.  

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Gender-based Violence and Disabled Women: Let’s Talk

Social Lives

Author: Eliona Gjecaj is an early-stage researcher in the DARE project (Disability Advocacy Research Europe) based at the University of Iceland. Her PhD research focuses on ‘Violence against Disabled Women: Access to Justice’ in Iceland and the UK.

Eliona Gjecaj
Eliona Gjecaj

Today, on International Women’s Day, I would like to celebrate all the survivors of gender-based violence, especially disabled women, and encourage others to come forward and tell someone. Gender-based violence is not and should not be taboo. Much like the saying ‘talk the talk, walk the walk’, we must have the experience talk. We must access the justice walk.

Let’s first  highlight that there are so many unheard experiences of gender-based violence of disabled women that we need to hear, to believe, to recognise as breaches of law, and thus, provide support and access to reporting and prosecuting such violence. Lack of disability-rights-based knowledge, awareness, and training should not be the defence, but rather acknowledged and addressed. Not just in Ireland, but in many countries across Europe.

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The impact of Covid-19 on women in academia: A step backwards for gender equality?

Social Lives

Author: Dr Rebecca Maguire, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University

Rebecca Maguire
Rebecca Maguire

International Women’s Day is a great time to celebrate the numerous achievements of women across the world. However, it is also an important time to reflect on the struggles and inequalities that persist for many. Unfortunately, despite significant strides towards gender* equality in recent years, as a group, women remain disadvantaged in the world of work relative to their male counterparts. This includes the oft-cited gender pay gap – the difference in median earnings between men and women – that persists in many sectors. Academia is no exception to this, with a recent report from the HEA showing that, in 2020, men made up 73% of Professors in Ireland, compared to women who made up just 27%. This is despite the fact that women make up a greater proportion of early career researchers and lecturers in academia – an effect often referred to as the “leaky pipeline”.

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Supported Decision Making and Next of Kin: The DSS Perspective and new perspectives for innovative participatory research

Social Lives

Author: Hannah Casey, Assisting Living & Learning( ALL) Institute Blog editor and PhD Candidate, Decision Support Service

Hannah Casey Profile Picture
Hannah Casey

Supported Decision Making is a method that may be employed by persons who require help to make decisions in their day-to-day lives. These decisions may range from, where to go on holiday, to, how to manage financial concerns. Supported Decision Making is gaining traction and importance across the globe, and particularly in an Irish context in anticipation of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015, set to be commenced in full by mid-2022. This has the added effect of ensuring Ireland may fully honour Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states that persons with disabilities have the right to make their own decisions, and enjoy the same legal capacity that people without disabilities have in their lives. The Decision Support Service (DSS) has been established to support persons to exercise their right to make decisions, with the key understanding that a person’s capacity to make decisions should be assessed by reference to the decision in question.

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December 3rd 2021, UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities: Fighting for Rights in the Post – COVID Era

Stories/Lived Experiences

Symposium

Click here for Audio Version

Author: James Cawley, Policy Officer, Independent Living Movement Ireland (ILMI)

James Cawley
James Cawley

First of all, a big thank you to the “ALL Blog” for asking me back to contribute for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. It has been an extremely busy year, (all online), with working from home and receiving endless updates on the Covid-19 pandemic. December 3rd is the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and I sit here with straw and a mug of tea in hand, writing this blog one year since it started!

I’m a very proud Irish disabled man who is a son, brother, husband, friend and co – worker. I also work as a Policy Officer for Independent Living Movement Ireland (ILMI).

We are a campaigning, ‘national cross-impairment disabled person’s organisation’ or ‘DPO’ as defined under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

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December 3rd 2021, Exploring this year’s theme to commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Social Structures

Symposium

Click here to view Audio Version

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

Ana Maria Sanchez Rodriguez
Ana Maria Sanchez Rodriguez

Since 1992, we celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) and this year’s theme is “Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world”. Similarly, in 2019, the theme was: “Promoting the participation of persons with disabilities and their leadership: taking action on the 2030 Development Agenda”. The IDPD 2019, focused on persons with disabilities and their organisations’ empowerment in order to push forward the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda. The IDPD reminds us of the challenges ahead and the way forward.

Supporting collaborative leadership and promoting meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and their organisations must be a priority. Persons with disabilities need to be engaged in the decision-making processes that affect their lives. To commemorate the IDPD, I’d like to suggest and reflect on the following questions:

  1. What does it mean to promote leadership and participation of persons with disabilities?
  2. What has been achieved so far in this regard?
  3. What are the learnings to bring forward to lead an inclusive, accessible, and sustainable change for persons with disabilities?
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Vulnerable Groups and the Right to Culture: Challenges in a Digital World

Social Structures

Authors: Katie Donnellan, Delia Ferri, Noelle Higgins and Laura Serra; Maynooth University ReCreating Europe Research Team

ReCreating Europe Logo - Recreating in blue text Europe in mustard text. Image of mustard stars in shape of glass in lightbulb with blue bulb underneath to create image of lightbulb.
ReCreating Europe Logo

The world has become increasingly digitised, with digitisation having significantly escalated during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Lockdown restrictions implemented across the globe have pushed cultural content online and the internet has become the primary means of cultural enjoyment. This has generated ‘unprecedented challenges for the protection and promotion of diversity’ in digital cultural content, which risks exacerbating existing barriers experienced by marginalised people to the access and enjoyment of culture. Intellectual property law, specifically copyright law, is the primary regulatory means of protecting cultural creators’ proprietary rights over their content, and it traditionally operates to prioritise their rights over those of end-users, subject to certain limitations, exceptions and flexibilities as prescribed by law.

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It’s Probably Nothing: My Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Stories/Lived Experience

Author: Aoife O’Brien, Academic Council Officer, Maynooth University

Side by side pictures of Aoife O'Brien - Left shows Aoife before Cancer treatment with long dark hair smiling. Right shows Aoife during her cancer treatment with no hair looking glamorous and smiling
Side by Side of Aoife O’Brien

When I was asked to write a piece for this blog, I felt quite flattered. But the truth is, I’m not that special. I’m one of about 3,600 women who were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020.

It was early in August 2020 when I discovered the lump in my breast. An unusually persistent pain prompted me to look at myself in the mirror, and I noticed the skin looked rippled. I knew enough to know that was a warning sign and on closer examination I could see and feel a lump, about the size of a golf ball. I was hesitant in contacting my GP, hoping that the problem would just sort itself out. But of course, it didn’t. It stayed there, defiantly staring at me. So, I went to the doctor to have it checked out, all the time convincing myself that it was probably nothing. When my GP quietly told me she wanted to refer me to the Mater Hospital for further investigation, my confidence was rocked a little, but even then, I kept telling myself it would turn out to be nothing.

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