Sir, – I had a call with a “special needs” public dental service on Friday and, on behalf of my non-speaking son, I asked for a simple adaptation. I asked for two photos to show him beforehand and help familiarise the unfamiliar. The response: “We don’t provide that.” When I tried to explain how important it was in supporting access to the dentist, I was told it was never requested before, and if the visit didn’t work out for my neurodivergent son, he could return at another date.
My disabled son experiences this inflexibility in healthcare, education, transport, community activities, supermarkets, summer camps, sport. The five-year-old is expected to adapt. The grown-up is not willing to.
Be the grown-up. Adapt. Learn. Be reasonable.
If my five-year-old can do it, you can too. – Yours, etc,
Ed Sheeran has as much right to call himself Irish as The Pogues or The Smiths
‘My husband is obsessed with exercise and sports ... it feels a bit like an affair’
I spend a lot of time with men. It’s taught me to enjoy the silence
Who is the American who left €535,000 to Sinn Féin’s US fundraising group in her trust?
LUCINDA MURRIHY,
Dundrum,
Dublin 16.
