LEAP National School’s application for funding to provide wheelchair access has received the support of the Irish Wheelchair Association, writes Jackie Keogh.

The IWA issued a statement calling on the Department of Education to ‘audit every school in the country to identify access gaps’.

The department’s refusal to provide Leap NS with funding under its Emergency Works Scheme was criticised by both the school’s board of management and the IWA. Social Democrat leader, Holly Cairns, also raised the issue in the Dáil.

Rosaleen Lally, the national access manager with the IWA, agreed that the department’s ‘wait and see’ approach – where funding is often only considered when a student with a disability is already enrolled—is failing communities.

‘Accessibility must be proactive, not reactive,’ she said. ‘It is unacceptable that schools like Leap National School have to fight for basic infrastructure.’

Not only is the IWA calling on the department to audit every school in the country to identify access gaps, the IWA access manager said: ‘This must be backed by a specific, protected budget to make all schools fully accessible.

‘A new student could join at any time, or a current student could suddenly require a wheelchair; our schools must be ready for them on day one,’ she concluded.