General election : Access For All Galway outlines the key issues affecting people with disabilities
Image Source- Ireland’s Content Pool Credit-Chaosheng Zheng
Galway Pulse has spoken with ‘Access For All Galway’ about issues affecting people with disabilities in Galway ahead of the upcoming General Election on Friday November 29.
‘Access For All Galway’ was first established in the 1990s and consists of a partnership between disability organisations and individuals with the goal to achieve Universal Access for everyone in Galway city.
Broad range of issues
Marian Maloney the CEO of ‘Access for All Galway’ spoke to the Galway Pulse about the key accessibility and service issues impacting people with disabilities. “There’s so many issues that it can be hard to pinpoint one in particular as the disability community is so broad.”
Marian is visually impaired and outlined her own experience ,“I’ve been on my sight loss journey since I was born, I’ve been going through different stages and I’ve a lot less sight now”. She added that “it’s the same no matter what disability you have there’s different stages, age has a lot to do with it as well, as you get older your disability might get worse, your needs will change”.
This is something that the CEO hopes the incoming government will pay attention to. “I have heard a few of the candidates saying that they will appoint a designated disability minister which is something that we’ve been looking for.”
Cohesion between government departments important
Marian stated that it is very important that , “each of the departments in our government are brought together because no matter what disability you have it overarches every sector and community we have”.
“What a lot of people don’t realise is when you’re on the physical and sensory database in this country and are in receipt of a social welfare payment when you turn 65 you’re taken off that database and go onto the older persons database , I think that this something that should be looked at.”
She added that , “when I turned 66 I wanted to start my own business and was looking at grants available to disabled people only to find out I was ineligible as I wasn’t on that database as a disabled person anymore”.
Marian believes that there should be more “clear and concise information provided by the different departments as there is a lot of stuff hidden from us ,that we wouldn’t have found out without looking for it”.
Accessibility in Polling Stations
The Access For All CEO said that it is “vital for people to vote” in this upcoming election. Marian outlined the fact that it can be quite difficult for people with disabilities to vote due to lack of accessibility at some polling stations.
She stated that “they think they have improved accessibility for visually impaired people however the area is quite small and the counter you fill in your ballot paper on is quite short so when there is a huge number of candidates on the ballot how are we going to manage in this format?”.
“Since this format started, I’ve either had to go with my son or daughter or get one of the returning officials at the station to assist me”.
Marian believes that it is important to talk to the people with the “lived experience of having a disability” to get a better understanding of what they want and need at the polling stations to be able to vote.
Marian Maloney has been working in the disability sector since 1999 and is of the opinion that the different organisations helping disabled people should “come together as one strong voice”. She added that if this happens “ disabled people would have a stronger voice in the places that matter such as the local and national government”.
To find out more about Access for All Galway you can visit their Facebook and Instagram pages Access for All Galway | Facebook .
