Tag: IdeasInALL

Promoting Engagement in Sport for Persons with Disabilities Through Assistive Technology

Social Lives

Authors: Dr. Emma Smith, Postdoctoral Researcher, AT2030, ALL Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University and Ana Geppert, Masters student of Global Health at VU Amsterdam, intern with the ALL Institute at Maynooth University, in partnership with Loughborough University.

Photo by Audi Nissen on Unsplash: ESPN WIde World of Sports Complex, United States Womens wheelchair basketball
Photo by Audi Nissen on Unsplash

In celebration of the launch of the #WeThe15 campaign; the largest ever global human rights campaign to increase awareness and social inclusion of people with disabilities through sport, we would like to share some of our recent research in the area. #WeThe15 is an acknowledgement that at least 15% of the world population – over 1 billion people – live with one or more disabilities, each of whom is entitled to all of the rights and freedoms, and the benefits of social inclusion experienced by people without disabilities worldwide. Of those rights affirmed in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure, and sport (Article 30) is one that we have had a recent focus on in our work.

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Adaptive Fashion: An Instrument to Enhance Independent Living and Self-Confidence of Persons with Physical Disabilities

Social Structures

Author: Francesca Albi, J.D. Candidate – Università degli Studi di Verona (Italy)

Francesca Albi Profile Picture
Francesca Albi Profile Picture

Accessibility is one of the general principles embodied in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and it is explicitly affirmed by Article 3 (f), Article 9 and other provisions of the Convention. Accessibility must be understood as “the right to use goods, services and facilities available to the public without discrimination, and obtain an equal benefit from them” (Broderick and Ferri, 2019, p. 140). Accordingly, accessibility is strictly linked to the concept of “universal design”, which is an expression of the paradigm-shift embraced by the CRPD (Cera, 2017, pp. 107-118) and which is defined in Article 2 of the CRPD as the “design of products, environments, programmes and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design”.

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A Matter of Trust: Accepting Artificial Intelligence and Robotics-Aided Care to Enhance Independent Living for Persons with Disabilities

Social Structures

Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL Institute)

Matthew McKenna Profile Picture
Matthew McKenna

The European Union (EU) is arguably emerging as a global leader in the ethical and human rights-based regulation and deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, domestic and wider societal settings in the twenty-first century. On the 8th of April 2019, the EU High-Level Expert Group on AI presented ‘Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence’. This followed the publication of the guidelines’ first draft in December 2018 on which more than five hundred comments were received through an open consultation.

According to the Guidelines, trustworthy AI should be:

(1) Lawful – Respecting all applicable laws and regulations

(2) Ethical – Respecting ethical principles and values

(3) Robust – Both from a technical perspective while taking into account its social environment

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My Placement Experience with ALL Institute

Stories/Lived Experience

Author:  Kimberly Wright, Postgraduate LLM student Global Legal Studies

Profile Picture Kimberly Wright
Kimberly Wright

One of the main reasons I decided to pursue a Master’s Degree in Global Legal Studies after completing my Bachelor’s in Law was to obtain a better understanding of the global legal system in the hopes of one day working for an international organization, as well as to apply for a placement to gain practical experience in a reputable organization. From February to May of this year, I had the privilege of interning with Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute.

My first day with the ALL Institute I was incredibly nervous as I had no previous experience working in this field and it was completely different from what I was accustomed to. However, upon meeting the co-directors and their administrative lead for the first time, I was warmly welcomed and immediately put at ease.

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Social robots in real-life environments

Social Technologies

Authors: Negin M Harandi– PhD student, Department of Sociology, Maynooth University. Funded by ADVANCE CRT (SFI), Fatima Ayoub – PhD student, Department of Electronic Engineering, Maynooth University. Funded by ADVANCE CRT (SFI)

Pictured Mylo Robot
Pictured Mylo Robot – CR Robotics/Mylo

Can robots be social? Can we start to think of them as our co-workers, companions, teachers, or caregivers? Would they make our lives easier or is there a robot-dominated dystopian future already awaiting us? These are some of the questions that might pop into anyone’s head when hearing about social robots. Thinking about how AI could be more social is always interesting. We are an extremely social species and often like to imagine what happens when something other than a human is able to act like a human.

On 19 April 2021, the ALL institute hosted a seminar on “Social robots: the ultimate test for AI and robotics”.  Professor Tony Belpaeme (Ghent University) introduced by Dr Rudi Villing (Maynooth University), took us through a few experiments with social robots in different social settings and we got the chance to see how social robots were performing as teaching assistants, therapy assistants and caregivers.

This was especially interesting to us as our PhD projects are about robots. Although we have different ways of studying and looking at social robots as a sociology student and an electronic engineering student, being able to see some of the shortcomings and challenges of using social robots in real social environments was fascinating for both of us.

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International Day of Sport for Development and Peace

Author: Ana Geppert, Masters student of Global Health at VU Amsterdam, intern with the ALL Institute at Maynooth University, in partnership with Loughborough University.

Social Lives

Ana Geppert Profile Picture
Ana Geppert

Sport can be a powerful tool contributing to community development. Engagement in Sports has the ability to unify people from the most diverse backgrounds, as well as strengthen the relationship we have with ourselves. In many ways, the practice of engaging in Sport (in the broadest sense of the concept) is like accessing a gateway to so many different levels of society. From our closest surrounding context (micro level) to the highest structures of society (macro level). It can help accessing community services and assistive technologies, which are all crucial to community development. In my discussion today, I am speaking about Sport broadly – not elite-level performance, but rather the every-day sports practices many of us engage in. Encompassing everything from physical activity, to exercise but also recreational play.

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World Autism Awareness Day: Inclusion in the Workplace

Author: Marco Lombardi, Department of Social Educational Care Work and Researcher at Equality Research Collective, Hogent University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Ghent, Belgium.

Social Lives

Marco Lombardi Profile Picture
Marco Lombardi

Since its establishment in 2007, World Autism Awareness Day has grown up. It began as a celebrative day to facilitate acknowledgment of persons with Autism and the recognitions of supports enable participation in society. A few years have passed and the awareness of persons with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has increased. The improvement has brought greater visibility, respect and access to treatments.  Guidelines have been developed worldwide and more personalized supports have been tailored and delivered for pupils and teenagers. As the awareness grow up, persons with ASD have grown too. This growing awareness has revealed different barriers to the participation to society, especially for adults, that have not been considered at earlier ages.

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Including Patients and the Public in Research

Stories/Lived Experience

Author: Jamie Howell; PhD researcher, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University

Animation, 6 people on a blue background 3 healthcare practitioners 2 elderly people 1 person in a wheelchair and a female.
BioMed Central-

In recent years, health researchers have begun to embrace the concept of patient and public involvement (PPI). Rather than conducting research on or for various populations, we have begun to move towards working with patients and the public by prioritizing their needs and concerns. This allows researchers to learn from those who have lived experience and can help them design research projects which are more beneficial to the population being researched.

I first heard of PPI during my MSc, when my supervisor, Dr Rebecca Maguire encouraged me to include aspects of PPI in my research. Dr Maguire has worked as both a researcher and as a patient advocate, and her expertise has been invaluable to my own research.

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Promoting Equal Participation and Eliminating Discrimination: Time to Change the Narrative.

Social Lives

Author: Mohamed Maalim – PhD Researcher, of the ALL Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University

Blue Butterfly with Brown slate background. Zero Discrimination Day 01 March 2021 wording in top right hand corner

The Zero Discrimination day is celebrated annually on the 1st day of March, to reflect on our rich human diversity and the need for equal opportunity to enjoy fundamental human rights, and to fight against discrimination in all its forms and manifestations. This year, above all previous, the ongoing global COVID-19 Pandemic with all its disruptive nature and the misfortune it has brought and caused, has also offered humanity a glimpse of its ‘non-discrimination’ attribute. The advent of COVID-19 reinforced upon us that we are all equal as humans in our susceptibility, our fear and concern for self and others, and indeed in our hope of getting back to as ‘normal life’ as possible or whatever that ‘normal’ means. 

Additionally, with Covid-19, we have adopted a common enemy enforcing upon us an almost military-type operation to fight back. The nations of the world in an unprecedented fashion formed ‘NATO’ type alliances and collaborative networks with the ‘Big Tech’ and ‘Big Pharma’ in a concerted effort to develop digital contact tracing and tracking apps‘ and vaccines, respectively.  Individual governments assumed the role of commanding officers alongside senior health personnel, frontline healthcare workers, and other so called ‘essential’ workers as the foot soldiers of the operation, while the general public’s hearts and minds were won by calls to stay at home to suppress the virus. 

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International Mother Language Day and Mother Language Education

Social Structures

Click here for Irish Language Audio Version

Authors: Dr Noelle Higgins is an Associate Professor in Law at Maynooth University and Dr Dorothy Ní Uigín is Riarthóir Theagasc na Gaeilge in Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge at NUI Galway

www.un.org/en/observances/mother-language-day

The 21st of February is International Mother Language Day, with the theme of this year’s celebration being ‘Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society’. This celebration of languages was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1999, and has been celebrated every year globally since 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. Its establishment has since been heralded by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, which, in Resolution 56/262 of 2002, welcomed UNESCO’s initiative, and called ‘upon Member States and the Secretariat to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world.’ This year’s theme emphasises the role of language as a means of societal inclusion and underlines the importance of education in one’s Mother Tongue.

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