Author:Eva Krolla in dialogue with Professor Delia Ferri and Lucy Glover, Executive Producer at Stopgap Dance Company
Alt Text: Image on the left shows Eva Krolla smiling and wearing white, image in the centre shows Professor Delia Ferri smiling and wearing black, image on the right shows Lucy Glover smiling and wearing navy.
On 11th April, the contemporary dance piece ‘Lived Fiction’ premiered at Dublin’s Lir Academy Theatre in collaboration with Project Arts Centre (PAC). The piece was commissioned by DANCING, a European Research Council (ERC) funded academic research project based at the School of Law and Criminology of Maynooth University. It was created by Stopgap Dance Company’s Deaf, Disabled, neurodivergent and non-disabled creatives under the lead of co-artistic director Lucy Bennett. Stopgap are a global leader of disability access in dance and are based in the UK. ‘Lived Fiction’ artistically embeds accessibility for dancers and audiences through an integrated creative access approach.
Author: Mohamed Maalim – PhD Researcher at the ALL Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, and Senior Occupational Therapist and Project Lead, Digital Assistive Technology at Stewartscare
Research Stream: Lived Experience
A pivotal milestone in the calendar approaches as we come to the end of November. An occasion meriting grand celebration – the ALL Institute marks its sixth anniversary, a landmark that coincides with the 3rd anniversary of its stirring initiative, the ‘Ideas in All’ Blog. As a former editorial team member, I was asked to reflect upon my association with the institute and share insights into my enduring journey with the ALL Institute and the ‘Ideas in All’ Blog.
I joined the ALL Institute, drawn in by its ethos of ensuring that everyone, regardless of their circumstances, has the support and opportunity to participate fully throughout their lives. This ethos was further embodied through the blog, focusing on inclusivity, accessibility, diversity, and participation.
Author: James Cawley, Maynooth University Alumnus, Business Development Executive at the Irish Centre for Diversity, Disability Rights Activist, and Member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Disability Advisory Committee
Research Stream: Lived Experience
First, I want to extend my sincere congratulations to the ALL Institute team in marking the sixth anniversary of the ALL Institute at Maynooth University. Equally, I am delighted to contribute to the end of year symposium for the third anniversary of the Ideas in ALL Blog.
My name is James Cawley, I have contributed to the ALL Blog over the last 3 years. For me, the Blog remains an important channel to showcase empowerment and tackle social exclusion.
Author:Dr Holly Foley, PhD, Project Manager at the Digital Wealth Project, UDL Digital Badge Lead Maynooth University
Research Stream: Lived Experience
Digital Wealth: An Overview
As we pass the sixth anniversary of the ALL institute it’s a perfect time to reflect on how our research has grown and developed under the ethos of the institute. The Digital Wealth Project commenced in March of 2021 for a 3-year project and funded through Rethink Ireland and Microsoft Ireland led by Dr Katriona O’Sullivan and Dr Holly Foley.
The aim of the Digital Wealth Project is to tackle Digital Poverty. Digital Poverty is not income-dependent, instead it relates specifically to being able to access the digital resources (materials, skills, training, infrastructure) necessary to enjoy a basic standard of living.
Authors: Linda Mc Donald and Jamie Moore are 3rd year BSc Psychology Students, Research Interns for Dr Katriona O’Sullivan, and the STEM Passport for Inclusion Project, at the ALL Institute in Maynooth University
Research Stream: Stories/ Lived Experiences
This week marked a monumental one for us here in the STEM Passport for Inclusion project. Our programme is a project within the ALL institute here in Maynooth University. It provides socio-economically disadvantaged young girls in Ireland an opportunity to learn about STEM, one that is not easily accessible to them usually. This week both the Women in STEM awards and graduation ceremony for our girls who took part in the programme took place, highlighting and celebrating the need for a focus to expand knowledge and opportunities for education and involvement in STEM.
The Women in STEM awards in association with PEPSICO took place on Thursday, which recognises and rewards the accomplishments and efforts of women in the sectors of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). These women strive to improve and innovate their respective fields of work. It is important that their efforts are recognised and encouraged, to promote inclusion in the field of STEM. In addition, the awards bring attention to the need for more women in STEM, an ongoing and prevalent issue in today’s society. The Women in STEM Awards are judged by several women who have reached these top-level jobs and remained in them, against the odds. Two members of the impressive judging panel included Gillian Harford and Susan Treacy. Gillian Harford is a senior HR Executive who works with organisations aiming to target diversity and workplace change. While working as a Head of HR Strategy & Planning for AIB, Gillian contributed to people change with respect to Culture, Career, and Diversity. Susan Treacy is the CEO of HealthTech Ireland, and is a member of the Women in Technology and Science (WITS) Ireland Executive. This organisation helps to support and empower women in STEM, and advance STEM policy at government level. These influential women have themselves improved and innovated their respective fields of work and are hence qualified to judge the efforts of others.
The STEM Passport for Inclusion programme, working with Maynooth University and partners, was nominated for the award for Diversity & Inclusion Initiative of the Year. The feelings of excitement and anticipation as we waited for the winner of the award to be announced, could be felt by everyone in the room. To our delight, the STEM Passport was awarded the honour, an accomplishment that recognises our hard work and effort. Though the STEM Passport for Inclusion won the award for best Diversity & Inclusion Initiative of the Year, the fellow nominees of the category deserve equal recognition for their efforts to improve and innovate the field of STEM. Whilst it appears as though the organisations were in competition for the award, they were in fact working towards a common goal – to improve diversity and inclusion in the field of STEM.
There was no time to rest following the awards ceremony, as the following day was our graduation ceremony for over 400 girls who had taken part in our programme. Dr. Katriona O’Sullivan, who leads the STEM Passport for Inclusion programme, kicked off the graduation ceremony by introducing the project and congratulating all those receiving their level-6 accreditations. She then introduced the president of Maynooth University, Prof. Eeva Leinonen, who is actively involved in national and international higher education policy discourse and implementation, who briefly spoke about the initiative and its impact and congratulated all the girls for completing the module. After speaking, both Prof. Leinonen and Dr O’Sullivan, helped by Dr Gemma Irvine, Vice President for Equality and Diversity in Maynooth University, began to hand out the certificates to the girls who had completed the module. The girls each went up and received their well-deserved accreditation, thus graduating from the programme – a monumental moment for all parties involved.
Once the graduates had received their certificates, Ava Kenny, a former student of the programme, was welcomed to the stage to talk about her experience with the programme and the pathways it opened for herself. Ava, who is currently studying a science degree in Maynooth University, gave an emotional reflection on what the STEM Passport means to her, stating the programme was “a journey of self-discovery, of finding my passion and purpose. It sent me on a path where I could dream big, aim high, knowing that the STEM Passport welcomed me with open arms”. Ava beautifully captured the transformative and significant impact the initiative had on her life, surely inspiring all the graduates in the room, offering them a glimpse into the future possibilities their newly acquired accreditation can offer.
After Ava’s reflection, Dr Kevin Marshall, the newly appointed Adjunct Professor at Maynooth University’s ALL Institute, joined the stage to say a few words. He highlighted the graduates’ achievement, “to get the university qualification while you’re at school is just amazing”, offering his admiration and support for all the girls. He then passed the mic over to Katriona to close out the graduation ceremony. Once the ceremony was over, everyone headed over for pizza and refreshments, a well-deserved treat for both our girls and team members.
For our focus on accessibility to STEM education and inclusion within the field to be recognised by such a prestigious award is an honour. Furthermore, for it to be followed by the graduation ceremony, which allows us to reflect and recognise those efforts first hand, to be in the same week, has been nothing short of fantastic. These inspiring young girls, now adorned with their accreditations, now take one step further into the world of STEM. Both ceremonies recognise the work put in to pave the way for a more diverse and inclusive future in STEM – from both the team of today and the future women in STEM who took part in our programme.
Author Bio:Dr Rebecca Maguire is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Maynooth University. Her research interests include health and wellbeing in chronic illness, caregiver burden, health-related expectations, qualify of life and psycho-oncology. In addition, Rebecca has been living with multiple sclerosis for a number of years, which has influenced her research agenda. She is also a board member of MS Ireland.
Dr Rebecca Maguire
Tuesday 30th May marks World MS Day – an occasion celebrated by the global MS community with the aim of raising awareness of the condition known as multiple sclerosis (MS). In Ireland, it is estimated that approximately 9,000 people live with MS, however this number could be higher, with one study suggesting that around 300 people are diagnosed in the country every year. Internationally, almost three million people live with the condition, with rates twice as high in women than in men.
Simply put, MS is a chronic, often progressive, neurological condition in which the body’s immune system attacks the central nervous system, resulting in damage to myelin, thereby disrupting signals to and from the brain (see definition from the US National MS Society). Anecdotally, almost all people will have heard of MS, with many having a family member, friend or colleague living with the condition. However, few people will truly understand what MS is, unless, of course, they live with it themselves. To a certain extent I am privileged in this respect, having lived with MS for a number of years now, although my experience has also made me very aware that no two people with MS are the same. The disease can have wide-ranging, fluctuating and variable impacts for those affected, potentially leading to high levels of disability for some, while having minimal effects on the lives of others. Similarly, although some people with MS may require the support of caregivers, many others continue to live independently, holding down demanding jobs, juggling caring responsibilities and whatever else live entails. However, for almost all affected, MS and its management brings additional physical and psychological burdens which can, at times, be difficult to navigate.
Author: James Cawley, Business Development Executive at the Irish Centre for Diversity, Disability Rights Activist, and Member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Disability Advisory Committee
Author:Harry Chikasamba, PhD Researcher, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University
Harry Chikasamba
Every experience is different. And my late grandpa told me, when I was a few days to my 20th birthday, that ‘…in experience, we learn more about ourselves and others. You should be an ardent learner of life, through lived experiences.’ With that in mind, I became a learner of life. And everything fun, and beautiful.
17th March 2023 brought about its own lessons, unique and memorable. Most importantly, the day took me down memory lane. For the Irish, and several others, one needs no sermon about this day. No! St. Patrick is well-known across cultures and races. He was, and remains, a core part of the Irish culture – and identity.
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 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.
Author: Dr Ana María Sánchez Rodríguez, MSCA Fellow and Adjunct Assistant Professor of the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute
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).
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)
Joan O Donnell & Bob Williams
In this blog, we will discuss topics covered during ADVANCE CRT’s Summer School on Systems Thinking at Maynooth University in June 2022. See here for the first blog. It can be read as a discourse around designing research, and you are invited to consider how the questions posed offer an inflection point for your research.
Nobody would deny that research is a complex business. One of the most complex decisions is deciding the focus of your research among the vast range of possibilities that lie within its scope. This blog explores how understanding and addressing three different kinds of complexity can help with that tricky decision. Ontological complexity helps you address the reality you are dealing with; cognitive complexity helps you understand how different people make sense of that reality and praxis complexity helps you decide which parts of ontological and cognitive complexities ought to be inside and outside of your focus.
Authors: Joan O’Donnell, Systems Thinking Trainer and 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) and Bob Williams, Systems Thinking Practitioner, Trainer and Evaluator – Consultant
Joan O Donnell
This blog is the first of a series of blogpost contributions outlining basic Systems Thinking concepts presented at the ADVANCE CRT Summer School that we helped to design in June 2022, held in Maynooth.
‘The Systems Thinking summer school opened up little doors in my mind to paths that had been unexplored previously. It’s like an added tool to my repertoire and if I get back into old ways of thinking and get stuck, I remind myself of that door. It makes exploring topics more exciting also because it’s more of an adventure with this way of thinking’. Ashley Sheil, PhD Scholar, Maynooth University.
The ADVANCE CRT Summer School focusing on Systems Thinking marked the largest and most ambitious event of the Science Foundation of IrelandPhD programme to date. It brought over 60 students and supervisors together for four days in a memorable event that was as much a celebration of being together in physical space as an opportunity to delve deeply into the richness that Systems Thinking offers research.
This introductory blog gives an overview of Systems Thinking and a sense of its importance for transdisciplinary research. It also outlines some of the topics that students experienced during that week.
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 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!
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
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.
Author: Iryna Tekuchova, PhD Researcher, Department of Law, Maynooth University.
Iryna Tekuchova
February 24th, I woke at 7am in rainy Ireland. It had to be a busy day: reading, researching, editing. I made myself a cup of coffee and turned off the “airplane mode” on my phone. Five missed calls from my mother, seven – from my sister, and twenty-five unread messages from my friends popped up on my screen. I did not even need to read them to understand what it was about.
Russia attacked Ukraine. The war has begun.
I will never use the “airplane mode” on my phone again.
Author: Ross Coleman is a Translator, Writer and Disability Rights Activist from Dublin
Ross Coleman
“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically”, thus opens D.H Lawrence’s famous novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover, published in 1928 in which a bored unfulfilled housewife embarks on an affair with the gardener on her husband’s estate. Clifford Chatterley, Lawrence informs us, is a cripple, badly injured from serving in the front. Since his injury, he has become cold and unfeeling, absorbed in books and his intellect, only going outside to toot along in his electric bathchair. When I first read the book a few years ago, I dismissed it as a bygone relic of an ableist age. And yet, despite that, I was forced to admit a single harrowing fact: nothing has really changed.
I require a Personal Assistant (hereafter referred to as a PA) in order to help with daily tasks that I cannot do myself: getting dressed, going to the bathroom, showering. At the moment, my parents provide this support and have been providing it since I was born. If I want to go out, I either have to go out with my parents or just not go to the bathroom. Neither of these are desirable solutions. I should not expect, neither do I want, my parents to accompany me to every social function, but nor can I just not go to the bathroom.
December 3rd 2021, UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities: Fighting for Rights in the Post – COVID Era. Author: James Cawley, Policy Officer, Independent Living Movement Ireland (ILMI). Voiced by Anastasia Campbell
Author: James Cawley, Policy Officer, Independent Living Movement Ireland (ILMI)
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).
Technology advancement and innovation have reduced inequities in access to, and facilitated greater participation in, education for students with disabilities. In particular, assistive technology (AT) can significantly improve the overall educational experience of students with disabilities. Research has found a positive link between AT use and education and psychosocial benefits such as academic self-efficacy, increased well-being, adaptability, self-esteem, and competence. Hence, AT is not only an enabler but also serves to empower students with disabilities.
However, AT that is commonly associated as a support for students with disabilities can also benefit those without disabilities. At the same time, with advances in technology, mainstream technologies now offer many assistive features. There is arguably a shift in perception of what constitutes AT and who can benefit from it.
Author: Mac MacLachlan, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Maynooth University
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.
