Bacik calls for more disability-friendly design of college buildings

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) is in the process of finalising a detailed space survey of the higher education estate, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris has said.

Mr Harris said as part of the survey, higher education institutions have been asked to indicate the compliance of their buildings in relation to access for people with disabilities.

The Minister said the survey would be “regularly updated” and that it would be “a foundation we can build on”. He said the Government would monitor and report progress on the issue going forward.

Mr Harris was responding to Labour TD Ivana Bacik in the Dáil on Tuesday evening, who asked if his department would commission an audit of buildings and teaching practices in third-level institutions to determine the accommodations that must be made for students with a disability.

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Mr Harris also said he would be launching a new phase of capital investment calls this week which would include an emphasis on alignment with universal design principles and fostering inclusion.

He said a more comprehensive definition of a student with a disability in the national access plan was needed and that the definition “has been too narrow”.

Ms Bacik said many students with disabilities required greater levels of accommodation and support.

“It is thought that as many as 15 to 20 per cent of students currently in higher education have a disability so that’s a sizeable minority of students, not all of whom may have indicated to the college authority that they are in that cohort,” she said.

“There are others, potential students who would like to go to college but need greater encouragement, facilitation and support in order to do so.”

The Dublin Bay South TD said students with disabilities do not want to have to raise concerns about access “at every interval” and that was why universal design principles were so crucial.