Tag: Disability

Disability, Identity, Neurodiversity & Me: Or should “Me” be first?

Stories/Lived Experience

Author: Mac MacLachlan, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Maynooth University

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Mac MacLachlan

Different models of disability understand disability in different ways. The medical model associates disability with illness, deficit or disorder; and with the limitations these impose on individuals. The social model sees disability, not as a personal attribute but as the experience people have of barriers to their participation in society. The human rights model recognises both social barriers to participation and personal experience (for instance chronic pain) independent of barriers; and it asserts people’s rights to overcome barriers and access services to fulfil their right to fully participate in society. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, 2006) embraces the social- and human rights-based models and obliges States that have ratified it – Ireland did in 2018 – to provide the necessary services and supports for its implementation.   

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September 15th, United Nations International Day of Democracy: Enjoyment of Democratic Values and Freedoms by Persons with Disabilities

Social Structures

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

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Matthew McKenna

The Council of Europe (2020) recalls that the word ‘Democracy’ ‘comes from the Greek words “demos“, meaning people, and “kratos“, meaning power; so democracy can be thought of as “power of the people”: a way of governing which depends upon the will of the people’.

Theories and models of democracy and ‘popular governance’ have manifested in innumerate social models and national socio-political dispositions of rule over millennia since the beginnings of ‘Athenian Democracy’ in the 5th Century BCE. The Greek Directorate of International Relations and European Union of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports (2020) provides the following synopsis of the origins of democratic rule that is cherished as part of the underpinning ethos of the favoured model of governance by the modern political establishment within the context of the socio-political order of the European Union (EU) of today: ‘Humans as autonomous entities in the context of organized society, the respect for their personality, freedoms and rights, were fundamental topics in the ancient Greek thought. From the Elegies of Solon (c. 630-560 BC) to the Democracy and Laws of Plato (428/7-348/7), the Politics of Aristotle (384-323/2 BC) and Demosthenes’ fiery speeches (384-323 / 2 BC), the ideas of justice, rule of law, decency, education, virtue and free thought stand out as key ingredients for the ideal regime’.

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