Several students with lived experience of disability have spoken to The University Times and relayed that, despite its ranking, Trinity is not as accommodating as it seems. Trinity is ranked the best college in Ireland for disability services. According to the 2023-2024 Trinity Disability Service’s annual report, “11.6 % of the total student population is registered with the disability service on campus”. Students with disabilities particularly focused on their experiences in receiving accommodations that meet their needs.
On their website, the Disability Service states that students must provide sufficient proof of disability to be considered for an accommodation offer. However, even when sufficient information is provided, room allocation is not guaranteed because of insufficient room availability. For example, there are seven fully wheelchair-accessible rooms in Trinity Halls and 36 on campus, which the website shares has “varying degrees of accessibility”. This makes entry into essential housing competitive and adds another stress on students. A now on-campus resident shares their difficulty receiving accommodation, “It took me three months, a doctor’s note, and a development of new severe symptoms to be considered for accommodation. Trinity prides themselves on supporting students, but in my experiences, it has felt like an uphill battle every time I need help. Trinity should be working with students, not against them”.
Students with physical disabilities have experienced several difficulties with Trinity’s accessibility. Ciara O’Brien, the Liaison officer of Ability Coop (a group of students with disabilities working towards inclusion in Trinity) shares that “the lifts break down in a shocking amount of time.” For instance, Chioma lloduba, a second-year student who has lived experience of physical and non-physical disabilities, faced several difficulties with accessibility on campus in her first year at Trinity.
“The lift in the 24 hour library gets turned off outside of “working hours”, broken automatic accessible doors, locked disabled bathrooms, emergency red cords in disabled bathrooms being tied up or cut completely, lack of advertising of accessibility measures at events,” Iloduba said.
“I never got a Personal Evacuation Plan to prepare for the possibility of an evacuation in my wheelchair,” Iloduba said. She expressed the frustration that “the meeting to discuss this constantly got pushed back and cancelled”. After reflecting on her experience as a student at Trinity she shared that “this year I have been made to feel like I don’t deserve a seat at the table at Trinity because of my disability, but from now on, I’ll pull up my own: my wheelchair”.
Accessibility concerns extend to the classroom environment. A second-year student studying Political Science raises concerns about Trinity’s lecture halls noting that “some lectures are conducted in lecture halls where there aren’t enough seats for the number of students,” which she says “forces students to either sit on the floor or tables in the back which is harmful to disabled students’ learning”. Similarly, a second-year PPES student shares the challenges he faced during exams. The student, who is registered with Disability Services due to a chronic illness, was advised by the exam invigilators that he could reschedule the exam within the same week. However, later he discovered that rescheduling was not an option and was forced to go off books. He emphasises that “Trinity’s Disability Services have been helpful in registering my needs; however, the follow-through with exam accommodations and alternative solutions was unclear”, adding that “the policies around rescheduling exams or handling medical emergencies during exams are extremely rigid, leaving little room for flexibility when immediate health concerns arise”.
Similarly, lloduba also faced struggles receiving class accommodations for her disability sharing that professors “refused to provide specific accommodations (namely, lecture slides – which would accommodate my auditory processing disorder), and did not provide alternative solutions or compromises”.
Ian Jackson, another student, shares that “SF [senior fresher] Biomed students could have between five and seven lectures in a row on a Friday depending on their choices,” which he notes as “profoundly unfair on students with disabilities who find it difficult to sustain attention over long periods”. When he reached out to the course office to address the issue he said that he found them “incredibly unresponsive,” and said he felt their response was essentially, “that sucks for you but nothing can be done.” After asking if specific courses could be recorded for attention purposes he states “the course office shut us down.” Both lloduba and Jackson described how Trinity has dismissed students’ requests for accommodations. Rather than supporting students, Jackson describes the accommodations from college as an “attempt to vaguely patch up a system with innate faults through a couple of gimmicky assistive technologies”.
Despite the issues that students have faced with Trinity’s provision of accommodations, students also shared positive examples of Trinity’s treatment towards students with disabilities. O’Brien expresses that Trinity has added a new service for students with disabilities which includes a social worker in the disability service, which is intended to help students complete tasks such as doing taxes or trying to deal with revenue. Additionally, she mentions that Trinity has a new program with Trinity Sport “focusing on mind and wellness, making sport very accessible to disabled students”. Iloduba appreciates Trinity’s disability service stating, “They advocated for me, supported and encouraged me, and provided me with the tools and coping mechanisms I needed to push through the barriers I faced”.
Students have suggested possible recommendations for Trinity to improve its services for disabled students. Iloduba recommends making Trinity more accessible for wheelchair users.
“Trinity should consider increasing the number of fully wheelchair-accessible rooms available on campus to ensure that all students have a place to live that meets their needs,” Iloduba said. “Physical access around campus is tough when lifts and automatic doors are constantly out of service, but if Trinity just stayed on top of maintenance, this wouldn’t be as much of an issue.”
“Disability accommodations should be workshopped, as the current ones often aren’t enough,” Iloduba said. “This would require liaising with the Disability Service and other Disabled Persons’ Organisations”.
“The school could offer more flexibility in reassessing or rescheduling exams, especially for students with disabilities who may face unpredictable health challenges,” another student said.
They recommend that further, Trinity implement “programs or resources to help disabled students manage stress and health concerns during key academic periods (like exams)”.
