Authors: Sharon Adedapo, Lauren Kane, Matthew McKenna, Alessia Palladino & Nuala Downes
As we celebrate five years of Ideas In ALL, our contributors have explored a wide spectrum of issues, reflecting the breadth of interdisciplinary research, policy, and lived experience. Our anniversary coincides with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and this year also marks 25 years of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the Charter). These benchmarks remind us that equality, dignity, participation, inclusion, accessibility, and fair access to essential services such as healthcare, education, and workforce participation are not abstract principles, they are lived commitments that shape policy, practice, and everyday life across Europe.
This year’s posts closely align with Maynooth University’s Research Beacons, Health and Wellbeing, Society and Public Policy, Sustainability and Climate Change, Heritage, Culture and Languages, and Data Science and Digital Transformation, demonstrating how research can advance inclusion, access, and social justice.
One symposium post reflects on the Charter’s milestones and ongoing challenges, highlighting why the Charter remains as vital today as it was 25 years ago. Several contributions engage directly with Article 26, which concerns the integration of persons with disabilities, reminding us that disability and caregivers’ rights are inseparable: policy can deliver inclusion, but only culture can deliver belonging.
Accessibility, central to both the Charter and disability rights is examined through reflections on the European Accessibility Act, identifying achievements to date and the need for more ambitious implementation to ensure meaningful, everyday inclusion.
True inclusion, requires deeper societal and structural transformation. Posts under the Society and Public Policy beacon emphasise the importance of the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in dialogue and decision-making, ensuring that lived experience informs policy and outcomes.
Indeed, blogposts developed as part of the ERC DANCING project, which focused on the right of persons with disabilities to take part in cultural life, emphasise the important cultural dimension of such rights, reflecting the Heritage, Culture and Languages Research Beacon. For instance, a blogpost explored how we may best address inclusion in the cultural domain, reflecting on the persistent barriers faced by persons with disabilities and on the positive role cultural organisations can play in promoting accessibility, celebrating diversity, and inspiring wider societal change. These insights strengthened our understanding of cultural participation as a rights-based issue.
Environmental protection (as protected within Article 37 of the Charter) is central to the Sustainability and Climate Change Research Beacon also features in the symposium reflections, with a post examining the implications of EU-level decision-making on sustainability and environmental safeguards. It raised important questions about whether current frameworks sufficiently protect the environment for present and future generations, considering whether stronger environmental rights should be more explicitly embedded within the Charter.
Additionally, several blogposts published this year deeply resonate with the rights protected under Article 17(2) (Intellectual Property) and Article 35 (Health Care) of the Charter, in particular those published as part of research conducted through the ERC PatentsInHumans project which explore the relationship between intellectual property rights, such as patents, and access to healthcare, also reflecting the University’s “Health and Wellbeing” Research Beacon. Topics explored included; (1) The increasing prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) in Europe, and how several factors, including intellectual property rights, are creating access barriers to treatment; (2) The tensions arising between intellectual property rights and the human right to health in the context of access to medicines; and (3) How the enforcement of intellectual property rights, for example, through injunctions, can compromise access to life-saving medical treatments. Ultimately, these blogposts argue there is a need for greater consideration of the health implications of how intellectual property rights such as patents are used over health technologies.
Also in line with Article 35 of the Charter and the “Health and Wellbeing” beacon, the need to work towards adoption of a more person-centred approach to healthcare was highlighted, in a blogpost which explored how optimising the health and care workforce can act as a catalyst for change, emphasising that building people-centred, sustainable, and future-ready health and care systems is integral to advancing equality and social justice. Digital innovation is envisaged as a key component of such optimisation, also reflecting the “Data Science and Digital Transformation” Research Beacon.
Further connecting to the “Health and Wellbeing” beacon, the issues of stigma and social attitudes towards health conditions also came into focus, through a blogpost exploring public misconceptions surrounding dementia. By highlighting the importance of shifting narratives from stigma to understanding and inclusion, this contribution underscored the need for awareness-raising that encourages participation and reshapes how we perceive ageing and cognitive health. A contribution to the “Society and Public Policy” beacon considered the potential of EU law and policy to support rights-based approaches to social services (Article 34), reflecting on how investment in social infrastructures, such as through the SWINS project, can help make communities more responsive to the needs and rights of diverse population. Education and STEM-focused posts also contribute to the symposium, including work on inclusive pathways and addressing access barriers to STEM opportunities. These contributions highlighted how equality (Article 20), non-discrimination (Articles 21 & 23), and the right to education (Article 14), principles enshrined in the Charter, can support wider participation for learners from marginalised or underserved backgrounds and contribute to more inclusive workforce and professional pathways.
Our blog highlights diverse ideas, but it is equally important to recognise the contributors who bring these ideas to life. Coming from a wide range of disciplines, sectors, and experiences, their insight, curiosity, and creativity give the blog its richness. Whether writing from perspectives of research, policy, practice, or lived experience, each contributor adds a distinctive voice that strengthens the interdisciplinary conversations at the heart of our work. This year’s blog also included creative expression through a poem, blending research with lived experience, using art to illuminate and humanise ageing, illness, disability, and caregiving.
As highlighted in the Co-Director’s recent editorial, “Celebrating Five Years of IdeasInALL”, our updated website reflects our commitment to reaching a wider and more diverse audience, and we continue to work towards making the site as accessible and inclusive as possible. Our social media platforms play a vital role in sharing this work with the public, extending the reach of our contributors’ ideas far beyond academic spaces.
With five years of Ideas In ALL behind us, we look ahead with purpose, collaboration, and hope. The conversations emerging from this blog continue to show how the values underpinning the Charter, alongside the commitments celebrated on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, provide a foundation for shaping more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable futures. We warmly welcome new blog submissions and invite contributors from all disciplines and backgrounds to join us in advancing these discussions.
