Broken wheelchair ramps making “accessible buses” inaccessible; landlords reluctant to let homes to wheel-chair users; workplaces with inaccessible toilets; banking apps that are impenetrable, and urban planning that is “not for us”.
These are among the day-to-day realities for disabled people in Ireland as described to The Irish Times.
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In coming days we will report people’s experiences of barriers to participation in employment and education, and accessing services like transport and housing, which left them feeling “soul-destroyed”, “demotivated” and “excluded”.
Families have described rage and hurt, feeling their disabled children were “written off” by an education system that treats them differently to their ‘able’ siblings and friends.
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A mother caring for her profoundly disabled son described her anger at politicians saying “carers do amazing work” while implementing policies preventing her doing the best for her family.
Seven years in from Ireland’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, these are harms – many of them in contravention of equality and human rights legislation – done to the 22 per cent, or 1.1 million, who are disabled. Rates are higher among women and older people.
In September, publishing his Government’s National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said “unequivocally disability is a priority” for his Government.
“It needs a whole-of-Government response. I have established the disability unit in my department not just to co-ordinate but to drive things across all aspects of life for disabled people.”
Centred around five pillars – inclusive learning and education, employment, independent living and active participation, wellbeing and health and transport and mobility – it includes 23 commitments.
As implementation of the strategy gets underway in the coming year, greater ambition, legislation at times to force change, and the centring of all disabled people’s voices will be crucial to its success, says Amy Hassett co-chair of the Disabled Women Ireland.
The term “disabled person” is used in preference to ‘person with a disability’ in the Government strategy. “This acknowledges the fact that disabled people are disabled by various barriers that may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others,” it says.
It is a “very scary time” for many says Ms Hassett, referencing the slashing of budgets for many disability human rights groups internationally, “but we have to be optimistic, we have to keep pushing”.
For any adult to thrive, employment is crucial.
University-educated Marc Anderson (28), a wheelchair-user, recently applied for a job near his home in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
The interview “went really well ... The [human resources] woman asked would I like to have a look around,” says Mr Anderson.
“She gave me a guided tour. When it came to the bathroom I could see there wasn’t enough room to swing the wheelchair in. It was meant to be the accessible bathroom.
“I asked: ‘Is this the only accessible bathroom?’ She goes ‘Yeah’. I just said, ‘Oh right, OK. I will have to think about this.’ It was immediately clear that even if I got offered the job it was not somewhere I was going to be able to work.”
In another instance, he was offered a job but some distance from his home. “But because the local bus is not fully wheelchair accessible, I had to turn it down.”
He recounts an interview for a hotel receptionist position. “An hour after the interview, on my LinkedIn they told me: ‘Thank you for your interview. We appreciate your time. An internal candidate has come forward and we have decided to offer them the position’. That could not have all happened in an hour.
“I had one employer ask me: ‘Are you sure you are able to do this job?’. My response was: ‘Well I wouldn’t have applied for it if I wasn’t able to do it?’… She was worried about me being able to answer phones and cope withthe work demands.”
The “biggest barrier” he feels to him getting work “is the employer’s stereotyping” of disabled people.
“If I am going for a job and I have the exact same experience and qualifications as you have, then you are more likely to get the job because you are able-bodied.”
Asked if he has ever challenged an employer on this he says: : ”You can ask for feedback all you like but they can just say what they like. Who is going to prove them wrong?”
Mr Anderson is not alone in feeling there are significant barriers to disabled people accessing employment.
He is involved in a campaign run by the Donegal Centre for Independent Living titled ‘Put Us To Work’. A short video for the campaign, in which others describe the describe prejudices they face, includes a visually impaired man.
He is shown making himself a hot drink as he speaks: “People make assumptions all the time about me and my capabilities”.
A young woman who was offered a job in a local company says: “Unfortunately, I was unable to take up the position because their building wasn’t accessible for me”.
Ireland has one of the lowest rates of employment among disabled people in Europe – standing at 32.6 per cent compared with an EU average of 51.3 per cent. A March 2025 study by the Economic and Social Research Institute found the “at risk of poverty rate for disabled people is estimated to be between 65 per cent to 76 per cent”.
Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary has described as “unacceptable” the low employment rates disabled people are achieving. He has urged more employers to look at the wage subsidy scheme (WSS), which supports with wage and accommodation cost.
Currently 1,509 employers are engaged with the WSS employing 2,538 people.
Employers’ lobby organisation IBEC describes the fact that Ireland has “consistently one of the widest disability employment gaps in the EU” as “not just a social failure, it is an economic own goal.
“In a tight labour market, we are leaving a significant pool of talent on the sidelines,” said Kara McGann, Ibec’s head of skills and social policy.
“Ibec is working with businesses and stakeholders to reposition inclusion as a key competitiveness issue. We must move beyond mere awareness and transition into action by dismantling barriers to employment,” she said. The “real and perceived benefit traps that discourage work” and making “reasonable accommodations ... standard management practice” must be part of this.
The Government’s national human rights strategy for disabled people is guided by obligations the State must meet under international human rights law, makes three commitments on employment.
These focus on the civil and public sector, the private sector and supporting disabled people to work, including to “maximise opportunities and access”; “promote the hiring and career advancement”, and” “provide the right supports at the right time”.
Public sector employers have been set a target that 6 per cent of their employees be drawn from disabled cohorts, by the end of 2025. This is “too low”, says Ms Hassett “when you consider disabled people are more than 20 per cent of the population”.
Minister Calleary has resisted employment quotas for disabled people in the private sector however, a proposition Mr Anderson feels should be considered. Failing that he suggests larger employers could be required to publish data on what proportion of their workforce is disabled.
“It might make them look and think, ‘Maybe we are doing something wrong here’,” he says.
Employment for disabled people is not just a social issue. “It’s a human rights issue.” For him it would mean “purpose, routine, financial independence. And a sense of belonging”.
This article is part of a series highlighting the barriers faced by disabled people in Ireland to realising their rights to participate fully in education, employment, housing, transport and society.
Tomorrow: ‘I have been told a minimum of 11 years waiting’: On the housing list as a wheelchair user
