Access to Education for Persons with Disabilities in Europe

Launched in 2023, the IIEA Disability Policy Programme explores Ireland’s obligations, strengths, and shortcomings in the area of disability policy. The programme has been designed in consultation with leading experts in the field of disability policy in Ireland and seeks to explore and understand the lived experience of persons with disabilities in Ireland and across Europe including in relation to fundamental rights, political participation, education, employment, and more. The focus of this event is education, specifically persons with a disability right to education under UNCRPD Article 24, of which the EU is a party too. Speakers share their personal lived experience, insights, perspectives, and knowledge regarding the barriers to educational access and the pathways to education being created. Speakers also share their thoughts on what policymakers and the education system in Europe should do to support greater inclusivity for persons with disabilities within all parts of our education system. About the Speakers: Keynote Address: Sadbh Feehan is a graduate of the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID) in the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin. Sadbh graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a Certificate in Arts, Science, and Inclusive Applied Practice in June 2020. She completed a graduate internship in A&L Goodbody where she worked until July 2022. Sadbh began working as a graduate intern in the TCPID in September 2022 and was offered a permanent contract there in June 2023. Sadbh is a constant advocate for people with disabilities and has presented at a number of high-profile conferences and events, including most recently at a conference in Salzburg, Austria. Panelists: Delia Ferri is a Professor of Law at Maynooth University (MU) School of Law and Criminology and Co-Director of the MU Assisting Living & Learning (ALL) Institute. Prof. Ferri is also affiliated researcher at the DIRPOLIS Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Italy) within the research cluster on disability, and a fellow at the Burton Blatt Institute of Syracuse University (USA). She is a senior member of the European Disability Expertise network funded by the European Commission, and, since June 2023, a member of the Scientific Committee of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. Michael Shevlin is Professor in Inclusive Education and Director of the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities in Trinity College Dublin. His teaching and research have focused on facilitating the inclusion of children and young people with special educational needs within mainstream schools, promoting the voice of marginalised people within decision making processes that affect their lives, and addressing access issues for young people with disabilities within compulsory and higher education. As Director of the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities, he manages the delivery of an accredited education into employment transition programme for young people with intellectual disabilities. Michael Teutsch is Head of Unit, Schools and Multilingualism, in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC). The unit is a policy and programme unit contributing to the building of a European Education Area. He joined the European Commission in 2001, where he worked on labour mobility issues in the Commission’s Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL). Before that, he worked in the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, and in research projects in Germany and Italy on the European structural funds, and on transport and environment policy.