Latest news with #disabilityRights
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
NCAD could not ‘wipe slate clean' after student with Down syndrome failed exam, WRC hears
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has heard a third-level institution made 'every effort' to support a young artist with Down syndrome pursuing a degree – but that it could not 'wipe the slate clean' after she failed a crucial first-year module. The director of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) gave evidence on Thursday that in the wake of a 'heated' meeting with the student's parents, the woman's mother, a journalist, told her 'they would make sure that my reputation was damaged'. Ellie Dunne (25) – who is said by her legal team to be the first student with Down syndrome to enrol on a degree programme at NCAD on Thomas Street in Dublin 8 – is pursuing a complaint under the Equal Status Act 2000 against the college. Her case is the college failed to provide her with reasonable accommodation during her first semester after starting in September 2023 and that disability discrimination continued when the college required her to re-sit a failed first-year module. The college's lawyers have denied discrimination 'in the strongest possible terms'. READ MORE At an earlier WRC hearing on Wednesday , the college's head of academic affairs, Dr Siún Hanrahan, said some 32 per cent of the college's approximately 1,400 students had self-declared additional needs of some description. She said the college offers a range of supports to these students. Some were 'tailored' packages on foot of a needs assessment while 'less tailored' support was available more broadly to those who had simply self-declared additional needs. Dr Hanrahan said there was a 'significant difference' between the requirements of the level-five art course completed by Ms Dunne at Stillorgan College of Further Education and the level-eight bachelor's degree at NCAD. Ms Dunne had access to assistive technology and an educational support worker who was available for two days a week, the tribunal heard. After Ms Dunne failed a module, the college made the support worker available for five days. . The witness said Ms Dunne's parents, Katy McGuinness and Feidhlim Dunne, took it as 'a very offensive thing that Ms Dunne had not successfully achieved the learning outcomes of the module'. Ellie Dunne, centre, with her parents Katy McGuinness and Felim Dunne at the WRC in Dublin. Photograph: Stephen Bourke '[Their] view was that the slate should be wiped clean,' she said. 'Under the [academic] regulations, that's just not possible.' . The tribunal heard the college proposed to allow Ms Dunne re-sit the assessment with access to workshops and without academic penalty, and to have it considered by an exam board the following autumn. Barrister Rosemary Mallon, for the respondent, instructed by Paul McDonald of AJP McDonald Solicitors, pointed out she asked Ms Dunne in cross-examination last year whether she 'knew about that offer'. Ms Mallon said Ms Dunne had indicated she did not know about it and would have liked to have availed of it. 'If Ellie didn't know, it was because she was not told by her parents?' Ms Mallon asked Dr Hanrahan. 'Yes,' Dr Hanrahan said. At a January 2024 meeting 'any suggestion of a repeat was met with a lot of opposition,' the college's director, Prof Sarah Glennie said, but mediation was agreed to by the family. Prof Glennie said that during a phone call two days later Ms McGuinness said 'they would make sure that my reputation was damaged' and that 'they would bury me in the process'. 'That was directly said, that they would 'bury you' in the process?' adjudicator Breiffni O'Neill asked. Prof Glennie confirmed this. In cross examination, counsel for the complainant Aisling Mulligan, appearing instructed by KOD Lyons, put it to the witness that Ms McGuinness had 'disputed' telling Prof Glennie she 'would be buried'. Prof Glennie said: 'That is my recollection.' When the disputed remark was first raised last year by Ms Mallon, Ms McGuinness said it was 'a phrase not familiar to me'. The case has been adjourned to October.
BBC News
a day ago
- Politics
- BBC News
A priority for Guernsey voters is a housing plan
Rachel Davidson, 36, lives in St Peter Port with her husband, two children and her assistance dog Lily - and works for a local Guernsey says of the Guernsey general election's hot topics: "The vast majority of candidates have picked up on housing as an issue and I completely agree."A recent study found Guernsey's young people did not see a future for themselves in the island. "We are driving away a lot of our lovely local people, our great young people because they are being completely priced out of the housing market by ridiculously high rents and by lack of availability of affordable housing," Ms Davidson said. Guernsey Election 2025: The count A report previously found that Guernsey only added "one affordable home in two years" to the housing thinks an election can "cause tensions" within families, friend groups and also online when discussing political views."You go on social media at the moment and there are really personal, nasty insults being flung around, directed at candidates sometimes or sometimes members of the public directing them at each other."I've found it hard, for example, finding out that various people who I've been friends with and really thought that they were very supportive then have turned around and made comments about disability rights and women's rights and things that I've felt very passionate about."I can't see the person in the same way again when I know that actually they stand against things that I am very passionate about." Anik Hubert, who is 27 and has recently become a mum says that although Guernsey is "absolutely brilliant, there are things that need to change".She has picked her candidates based on her priorities of mental health, education, housing and plans to help retain young people in the Hubert is already looking to the future and wants to live in an island with a lower cost of living, where her children can afford to rent or buy a house and work in a job "that they really want to". "At the minute, there's a lot of people that have left the island because of the economy or they can't come back but they want to."She also found it important to look at candidates who had signed up to the LGBT rainbow pledge for charity said it wanted LGBTQ+ people to "feel seen, heard, and valued in Guernsey's political and public life"."It would be amazing if, in four years' time, I can look back and think I voted for those people and look what they've done." Anik's feedback for the next election would be for to become more digital rather than print a large manifesto booklet for each 2025 Guernsey general election booklet cost taxpayers £133,026.89 to produce and distribute across the island, according to the States."I would have happily just read all of these online and know a lot of other people would have. So I think maybe in four years' time we should only print these upon request."I know that there are people that really benefit from having a paper copy and that's great, and they can request one, but I think we could probably cut money in half in four years' time by not printing so many."
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dylan O'Brien Latest To Join Apple's ‘Being Heumann'
EXCLUSIVE: Dylan O'Brien (upcoming Twinless) is set to star alongside Ruth Madeley and Mark Ruffalo in Being Heumann, Apple's adaptation of the bestselling memoir from disability activist Judy Heumann. In the film from CODA Oscar winner Siân Heder, O'Brien will play Evan White, one of the few reporters covering the San Francisco disability rights protests at the heart of the story. Madeley plays the title role, as previously announced, with Ruffalo playing Joseph Califano, the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Jimmy Carter, who was initially reluctant to sign off on civil rights legislation affecting the disabled Heumann follows Heumann as she leads over a hundred disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building, kicking off a 28-day sit-in in 1977. The protestors quickly form a tightly bound community, refusing to leave until the government enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which required all federal spaces to become accessible. More from Deadline Dylan O'Brien & Actor-Filmmaker James Sweeney On The Many Rejections They Transcended To Mount Their Buzzy Comedy 'Twinless' – Sundance Studio 'Twinless' Review: Dylan O'Brien Mourns His Dead Twin In James Sweeney's Heartfelt & Unhinged Comedy — Sundance Film Festival How 'Pachinko' Star Minha Kim Felt Approached Season 2's Cliffhanger: "That's When Sunja Finally Realized That She's Tired" Hailing from Apple Studios, Being Heumann will be directed by Heder, under her overall deal with Apple, from her script written with Rebekah Taussig. David Permut (Hacksaw Ridge, Face/Off) will produce for Permut Presentations alongside Kevin Walsh (Napoleon, Manchester by the Sea), whose The Walsh Company is under an overall deal with Apple. Heumann's managers John W. Beach and Kevin Cleary of Gravity Squared Entertainment will also serve as producers, with Heumann, Being Heumann co-author Kristen Joiner, Diana Pokorny, and and Jim Lebrecht exec producing. At this year's Sundance Film Festival, O'Brien premiered the dark comedy Twinless, where he's executive producer and star, winning the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting and seeing the film claim the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award. Months later, the film was picked up by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions, which will release it in theaters on September 5. O'Brien's other upcoming projects include the 2024 Sundance drama Ponyboi (in select theaters June 27) and the Sam Raimi-directed horror film Send Help for 20th, opposite Rachel McAdams. Also coming off a critically praised turn as Dan Aykroyd in Jason Reitman's Saturday Night, as well as the M. Night Shyamalan-produced Caddo Lake, for which he was nominated for a Gotham Television Award, O'Brien is repped by WME, Principal Entertainment, and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols. Best of Deadline 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More Men of Steel: Every Actor Who Has Played Superman - Photo Gallery 'Michael' Cast: Who's Who In The Michael Jackson Biopic
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Guardian writer Frances Ryan named one of Vogue's 25 women ‘defining Britain'
Guardian writer Frances Ryan has been named one of Vogue magazine's 25 women 'defining Britain', stating her work covering the rights of disabled people had become 'essential reading'. The publication said Ryan's efforts to spotlight the lives of disabled people were 'needed more than ever', with official statistics suggesting that a quarter of people in the UK report some kind of disability. It has been an increasing proportion of the population since 2014. Vogue, which has run the list since 2018, pointed to Ryan's work 'lifting the lid on the government's cuts to disability benefits or giving insight into highly emotive topics such as the assisted dying bill'. It also praised her recent book, Who Wants Normal?. Ryan said: 'It's ironic – or just very fitting – that I made the list in part because of a book I wrote this year arguing disabled women deserve a place in British culture. 'I'm really touched to be included and I hope it's another step in the climb to see many more women that look like me (and a lot that don't).' Her recent work has included coverage of a letter signed by more than 100 of the UK's most high-profile disabled people calling on Keir Starmer to abandon 'inhumane and catastrophic plans to cut disability benefits'. The Vogue 25 also recognised Amal Clooney, the human rights barrister. She was recognised for her work defending 'those who have suffered systemic abuse, particularly women and girls who have been victims of sexual violence'. It also included England footballer Lucy Bronze, whose aunt once threatened to sue the FA over a rule that meant Bronze was no longer allowed to play with boys' teams at the age of 12. The current Chelsea full-back has played for Liverpool, Manchester City, Lyon and Barcelona. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Others in the list include Labour's Rachel Reeves, the first female chancellor, Pamela Maynard, Microsoft's first chief AI transformation officer, Nicola Packer, who was acquitted of having an illegal abortion, theatre impresario Sonia Friedman and Princess Anne.
The Independent
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
MSP ‘overwhelmed' to become MBE
An MSP has told how she felt 'overwhelmed' when she learned she will become a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). Pam Duncan-Glancy is recognised in the King's Birthday Honours for years of public and political service. Speaking to the PA news agency, the Labour Glasgow MSP – the first permanent wheelchair user to be elected to the Scottish Parliament and a tireless disability campaigner – said she had learned about the honour in a text from her husband after she had received an email about it. 'I was overwhelmed, to be honest, and could hardly believe what I was reading,' she said. 'I'm really, really proud to have been given this honour for the work that I've done in the community and for disability rights. 'It's a real honour to do this. 'When I got elected as an MSP, I said I was a wee working class woman in a wheelchair. To think that I could be a wee working class woman in a wheelchair who's also got an MBE, I just thought that was pretty special.' While receiving such an honour from the Palace requires discretion, Ms Duncan-Glancy admitted she struggled keeping it all a secret. 'I told my sister, obviously my husband knows and I told my team and a couple of friends, but it was really difficult to keep it quiet,' she said. With just 11 months until the next Holyrood election, the MSP said there is 'loads more' the Scottish Parliament and politics more widely has to do for more disabled people to seek election. 'We need to support people to be active in their communities in the first place,' she said. 'For disabled people, it can often be about giving them help to get out of bed in the morning. 'There's quite a mountain to climb for us to support disabled people to get into politics and it's a mountain we absolutely have to climb, because there should be no space about us, without us. 'We need to do everything we possibly can to get more representation of disabled people, not just in Parliament or councils, but everywhere.' Elected in 2021, Ms Duncan-Glancy has impressed in her first term as an MSP, being given a spot on the Scottish Labour frontbench before even making it to Holyrood, when she was appointed social security spokeswoman by leader Anas Sarwar in the early weeks of his tenure. Before entering politics, she worked in communications for the NHS and campaigned for the rights of disabled people.
