[Image description: A graphic with a light blue background featuring a brush stroke effect. A cream box is in the centre outlined by a dashed line with a hand-stitched effect. Inside the box, text reads: “Disabled Women & Poverty: The Cost of Exclusion Participant Feedback Part 3.” At the bottom are logos for the Disability Participation News Hub, Disabled Women Ireland (DWI), the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, and the Department of Social Protection.]
Disabled Women & Poverty: The Cost of Exclusion - Participant Feedback Part 3
In Part 3 of this series from our Disabled Women & Poverty event with Disabled Women Ireland, we are sharing responses from our third question posed to attendees and contributors:
“What could be done to make life more affordable for this group (disabled women, girls and non-binary/genderqueer/gender non-conforming people)?”
You’ll find some of the responses from the question in a series of images below.
Participants contributed through discussions, sticky notes, artwork, and a survey to share their thoughts and experiences.
We will be sharing more highlights from this event over the coming weeks, including a poem written by Alice Doyle (The Autistic Poetess) based on the event.
We will also be working on a report to gather the insights from those who participated for future work and advocacy on this topic.
Thank you again to everyone who shared their time, insights, and experiences.
Our survey remains open until 14th November — we’d love to hear from you!
🔗 https://forms.gle/xunXZTLUAxUffhfB9
Keep an eye on our social media and Substack for further highlights!
Follow Disabled Women Ireland and keep up with their work on the DWI website.
This project was supported by the Department of Social Protection as part of the funding for the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2025.
[Image description: A graphic with a light blue background featuring a brush stroke effect. A cream box is in the centre outlined by a dashed line with a hand-stitched effect. Inside the box, text reads: “Disabled Women & Poverty: The Cost of Exclusion Participant Feedback Part 3.” At the bottom are logos for the Disability Participation News Hub, Disabled Women Ireland (DWI), the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, and the Department of Social Protection.]
[Image description: A graphic with a light blue background featuring a brush stroke effect. A cream box is in the centre outlined by a dashed line with a hand-stitched effect. Inside the box, text reads: “Question 3: What could be done to make life more affordable for this group (disabled women, girls and non-binary/genderqueer/gender non-conforming people)?”]
[Image description: A graphic with a light blue background featuring a brush stroke effect. Four colourful paper notes display participant feedback. A large yellow note with a green paperclip reads: “Universal healthcare. Disability allowance being raised to a living wage. Subsidised hotel stays for medical appointments in cities.” A green note reads: “Making it easier to access reasonable accommodations in the workplace.” A red-orange note reads: “There needs to be dedicated support for this group to bring WRC cases under WRC legislation against employers, potential employers and providers of education.” A white pinned note reads: “Cost of disability payments would help.”]
[Image description: A graphic with a light blue background featuring a brush stroke effect. Three notepaper-style shapes show participant responses. A large white lined note on the left reads: “A basic income payment for disabled people would make a huge difference, and would not necessarily be more costly than the labyrinth of ‘social welfare’ payments people currently have to navigate. It could be along the lines of the UBI (Universal Basic Income) model. It would make so much sense financially for both the State and for recipients.” A beige torn note on the right reads: “Better connected and accessible train and bus routes throughout the country.” A smaller white note at the bottom reads: “Cost of living with disability payment, compulsory DET training for all employers, DET training in school, improved access to mainstream education, fully funded PA supports throughout life.”]
[Image description: A graphic with a light blue background featuring a brush stroke effect. Three sticky notes contain participant feedback. A large yellow note reads: “Cost of disability allowance. Eliminating physical barriers around healthcare access. Why do we have medical offices that are not accessible to people with all types of disabilities?! Increase training of healthcare providers/consultants in treating women with disabilities. Reliable access to disability sensitive care, ISL interpreters, communication technology, neurodiversity training, sensory adaptations, etc.” A bright pink note reads: “Affordable and accessible childcare.” A light pink note reads: “Making period products cheaper.”]
[Image description: A graphic with a light blue background featuring a brush stroke effect. Three notes display participant responses. A grey notepad-style page reads: “Make self-employment easier for people with disabilities, the flexibility of self-employment, the ability to work alone (if you’d prefer to) makes self-employment sometimes more accessible.” A cream notepad with yellow and green tape reads: “Free contraception for all age groups (we shouldn’t be paying the €2.50 a month for the pill etc. regardless of income).” A blue graph paper note reads: “A higher threshold for what you can earn before you’re means-tested when you are on Disability Allowance, the €165 a week is nothing before means testing kicks in.”]
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