Today marks our fifth day in Ireland- a unique country that I haven’t had any past experiences with. Even though I am fairly well traveled, I still expected to have some trouble adjusting to the culture. To my surprise, I haven’t really needed to adjust to anything new. Ireland shares more similarities with the United States than I ever could have anticipated. In fact, Ireland seems to be doing a few things better than my home country. One thing in particular that especially stood out to me was that there is a national database to keep track of individuals with certain disabilities that are or are not currently using services. This tool provides Ireland with invaluable data about their citizens and can be used to modify services or alter the direction that the country takes with disabilities. While I recognize that this would be incredibly costly for the United States to implement, I can’t help but look up to Ireland for taking on this burdensome task.
From what I have seen so far, social stigma surrounding individuals with disabilities is comparable to that of the United States. Last night, we had dinner with individuals from a U.S. organization called T.I.L.L. The servers treated the individuals with disabilities the same as they treated my classmates and I. Even if they were surprised to see such a group dining at their restaurant, they did not let it show. This made for a lovely evening where we were able to learn more about some incredible people.
As we’ve toured the city, I have seen individuals with wheelchairs shopping in stores and moving independently around the city just as they might in the U.S. While there can always be room for improvement, the streets of Dublin (aside from all of the construction) are just as accessible as those of Boston or New York. Public buses in Dublin have wheelchair ramps and dedicated spaces for passengers in a chair. One feature of the buses that I favored over the ones we have at home is that there are no seats in the space where one would park their wheelchair. In the PVTA buses, whenever a passenger boards the bus in a wheelchair, other passengers need to be asked to move and seats must be folded up. This can sometimes be embarrassing for the individual with a disability and a hassle for the driver. It seems more efficient to leave the wheelchair area free from seats so that it is always available if a passenger in a wheelchair were to board the bus.
Tomorrow we are meeting with Trinity College and an organization called Inclusion Ireland. I am very excited to see how these visits compare to ones that we’ve already had. I’ve become inspired by the dedication of the professors at UCD to improving the lives of individuals with disabilities in Ireland and I cannot wait to learn even more about all of the progress being made by other groups.