Fingal Prioritise Access For Make Way Day As New Access Officer Appointed

This Friday, 22 September, marks Ireland’s national Make Way Day. Make Way Day also falls within International Week of Deaf People and EU Mobility Week. Each of these milestone dates is a time to reflect upon how we include and respect the rights and needs of those with disabilities.

 

Fingal Prioritise Access For Make Way Day As New Access Officer Appointed

Fingal County Council is delighted to announce the appointment of Cathal Kearney as Access Officer. Cathal joins Fingal County Council following six years with Wexford County Council, his home county. Cathal worked as part of an Access Team that pioneered a number of new access and inclusion initiatives, including the ‘Innovative Community Engagement’ project and ‘Advanced Digital Access Participation Project’ which earned praise from Minister of State Anne Rabbitte at the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

 

Cathal says “I am excited to get a number of projects underway, including the preparation of a Disability Inlusion Strategy for Fingal which will be designed with input from the public over the coming months. Access must be built into everything we do as an organisation, and collaboration with my colleagues on all sorts of items from digital services to public realm is a key element of my role.”

 

Deputy Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Grainne Maguire, says, “I’m very happy to welcome Cathal as our Access Officer. His work will ensure that every person who relies upon the services of Fingal County Council will be accommodated in a manner that respects their needs.”

 

Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, AnnMarie Farrelly says, “Make Way Day is an annual reminder that not everyone enjoys the same experience of services and public spaces. As an organisation we continually strive to improve our service offering for those with disabilities. We have built Recite-Me software into our website so that those with visual impairments can have materials read aloud to them or choose a high contrast appearance for the website.”

 

Those looking to avail of the read aloud Recite Me service on fingal.ie should choose the ‘accessibility tools’ button in the top right of any webpage on the site.

 

For Make Way Day 2023 the Disability Federation of Ireland (DFI), have developed an online tool and are again deploying Make Way Day stickers to highlight the issues faced by people with disabilities on the street each day.

 

The online tool will be available at www.makewayday.com on Friday, 22 September.  The online tool is designed to empower people to survey their local area for obstacles and report issues. It will give people the chance to share their frustrations by posting photos of obstacles to social platforms with the hashtag #MakeWayDay23.