AHEAD and the Union of Students Ireland (USI) are teaming up to host the Power of Disability Conference 2025. The free virtual event is taking place on February 12 and 13, aimed at empowering third-level students with disabilities to become leaders and advocates on their campuses.

AHEAD is an Irish non-profit that works to create inclusive education and employment environments for people with disabilities. The organisation has a specific advisory group for students, ensuring their voices are heard and reflected in relevant strategy and policy work.

One of the group members is Cara Clarke, who spoke with GCN ahead of the Power of Disability Conference. As someone with autism who is currently doing their final year of social care in TU Dublin, she said she was drawn to the advisory group because “it really gives students with disabilities a chance to be heard in the advocacy work that both AHEAD and the USI do”.

“That focus on our lived experience is really important,” they added.

The Advisory Group has helped to organise the Power of Disability Conference, feeding into AHEAD’s understanding of what it’s like to be a third-level student. Cara sees the event as an opportunity to highlight the experiences and needs of students with disabilities, explaining: “It’s going to have a focus on how education institutions can support and increase accessibility for students and also what it’s like to be a student and how we experience navigating college life.”

While Cara noted that the situation has gotten better in terms of accessibility, many challenges remain. 

“Obviously, all students with disabilities have a very individual and unique experience and unique access needs,” she began. “From speaking to other advisory group members and my own experience of what I see, issues that are raised are physical accessibility – the basics like certain colleges not having rooms that are wheelchair accessible or having lifts be out of order – which is obviously a huge and very easily identifiable access issue.”

Cara continued by stating that certain provisions that were implemented during Covid for the benefit of everyone, like lecture recordings, haven’t been maintained for students with disabilities.

“There can be a breakdown in terms of accommodations. As a student, you go to the disability services, you advocate for your accommodations and then sometimes academic staff don’t really want to engage with that. I think what it all boils down to for me, what the overarching issue is, is that accessibility and inclusivity are not a main priority in the higher education sector.”

In terms of what these institutions can be doing better, Cara said, “The first step is listening to students with disabilities, and not just in broad level policy but when students are requesting accommodations from disability support services or from academic staff.”

They added: “Accessibility can sometimes be seen as this tick-box exercise… I think we need to look beyond that at how we can get people to have equitable and meaningful access to education.”

While it should be a responsibility that these institutions take on on their own, unfortunately, students often have to self-advocate. However, Cara notes that this should not be “the long-term strategy”.

“We should move away from that, but the reality is that we are not there yet,” she said.

Offering advice to their peers, Cara stressed that although self-advocacy can be “really scary and require a lot of confidence,” it’s also a “valid and important form of activism”. She explained that those who challenge the system can pave the way for others, and highlighted the importance of organising at a greater level and intersectionality.

“There’s strength in numbers. When you have more people campaigning on an issue, it is more possible for change to be made. I also think people who have experience organising, have experience in advocacy, they have such a wealth of knowledge and experience that sharing it is invaluable to people who are newer to organising.

“The struggles of different marginalised people are interconnected. If education was more inclusive, if it was more equitable, if it was more generally accepting of difference and diversity, that would benefit all students. It would benefit queer students, students of colour, all marginalised students and students in general… I think we sometimes owe it to each other as different marginalised groups to support each other and show solidarity.”

 

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Third-level students with disabilities interested in attending the Power of Disability Conference can register for a free ticket to the virtual event here.