Good News Alert!
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (‘the Commission’) has welcomed the agreement of the State Examinations Commission (SEC) to prepare and implement an Equality Action Plan aimed at strengthening equality of access to State examinations for students with visual impairments.
For twenty years technology has changed and in turn how young people who are blind or vision impaired (B/VI) access information and exams has changed dramatically, the State Exam sadly did not reflect this and these students were put under huge pressure to complete exams differently than how they normally worked.
In the last 3 years, parents of young people taking state exams fought legally to have this changed. In both cases they won, but they were small changes. In the last 3 years students themselves also fought for changes and again small changes happened.
The IHREC then stepped in in 2025 and invited the SEC to review its accommodations for B/VI students, they understood that asking parents and young people to constantly fight for these small changes was neither fair nor sustainable. The SEC agreed and started a fruitful conversation with Féach and other stakeholders the result of this is an “EQUALITY ACTION PLAN” for B/VI students.
We are delighted, we are hopeful and we do believe a sea change is coming. To our parents who had the courage to take up this fight, to the students who found the courage to use their voice, we would like to say a huge THANK YOU.
To the IHREC, having your backing when we are so often ignored as we are a low incidence disability was invaluable.
Full text below