Students with Disabilities Advisory Group 2024/2025
The students with disabilities advisory group is a diverse group of students that works to advocate for and promote accessible and inclusive learning environments.
The members of the group work to inform the strategy and policy of both AHEAD and USI concerning the inclusion of students with disabilities in Higher and Further Education in Ireland. The advisory group serves to ensure that the disabled student voice is being heard and reflected in wider policy work.
The 2024/25 group is co-chaired by Luna Fleming and Joseph McLoughlin who are senior members of the committee.
Meet the members!
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Joseph McLoughlin (Co-Chair)
Joseph McLoughlin is a first-year engineering student at Dublin City University (DCU). He's passionate about spreading awareness about disabilities and making sure that their voices are heard. This passion stems from his own experiences with Autism, Narcolepsy, and ADHD. Joseph completed a PLC programme prior to starting at DCU, specifically Preliminary Engineering in Coláiste Dhúlaigh. This means that he has experience in both Further and Higher education. He has had the pleasure of knowing a wide range of people, both with and without disabilities. This has helped him understand the perspectives of both groups. Joseph believes that many of the difficulties faced by those with disabilities can be addressed through greater awareness of their experiences and a problem-solving attitude that focuses on removing barriers faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.
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Luna Fleming (Co-Chair)
Luna Fleming is an activist, particularly for disability but also for mental health, queer rights and gender equality. They are currently studying Digital Humanities and Information Technology in UCC. This is their second year on the advisory group. The first year gave them several prestigious opportunities to have their voice on disability in education heard, and it greatly developed their confidence when it comes to activism. Their main area of interest is on neurodiversity as they are autistic and dyspraxic. They have also done lots of campaigning surrounding services for people with eating disorders, including organising protests and speaking in the Dáil. Currently in UCC, they are on the neurodiversity society committee, they are the disability rights representative for the students union and are an access ambassador, meaning they help shape services offered to people who come in through alternative entry routes and/or have a disability. They look forward to contributing to the advisory group even more this year as co-chair.
Cal De Nicolas
Cal De Nicolas is a 2nd year BSc Psychology student at Maynooth University, and they are autistic. As an autistic individual they have experienced first hand the issues that many neurodivergent and disabled people face, this has given them a passion for making spaces more accessible and inclusive. Cal is the undergraduate academic representative of Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) on the psychology EDI panel at Maynooth University and was an academic representative for their course during first year. Therefore they are familiar with the issues faced by students with disabilities and eager to address them.
Cara Clarke
Cara is a final year social care student in TU Dublin. Cara is autistic, and chose their course because of this lived experience. From their own experience, as well as that of their friends and people they have worked with in social care, Cara knows that the world we live in can be deeply inaccessible. They are excited to be a member of this group because they know more can be done to ensure the human rights of people with disabilities in accessing education and they'd like to, in any small way, contribute to making the system fairer
Tammy Strickland
Tammy is undertaking a PhD at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), in association with the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences and FutureNeuro, an SFI Research Centre of for Chronic and Rare Neurological Diseases. Her project focuses on how cell specific disruptions to the circadian rhythm contribute to the development of acquired epilepsy. She is also heavily engaged in promoting the visibility of women and non-binary people in STEM, is actively involved in national and international science, communication efforts and is one of the current co-organisers of Soapbox Science Dublin. She advocates and writes for Crohns and Colitis Ireland and Epilepsy Ireland and is an active conservation and education volunteer in the Dublin Zoo.
Charles Gallagher
Charles Gallagher is a 23 year old from Co. Donegal doing a Bachelors Degree in Business in ATU. Charles got involved in this group because they feel people with all types of disabilities need to have a voice and that the stigma around certain invisible disabilities need to be squashed. They hope to ease this in the coming year for these students and other students with disabilities.
Diarmuid Hanna
Diarmuid Hanna is a fourth year medical student in University College Cork (UCC). In UCC and the local community, he plays a passionate part in advocating for individuals with disabilities, by partaking in campus related disability advisory boards and through his work as a welfare and accessibility officer, in multiple societies across campus. As such, he hopes to champion the qualms he has garnered from the aforementioned, and combine it with his own experience, thus contributing an encompassing opinion to the rest of the panel. Finally, he has a particular interest in invisible disabilities and headache based disabilities.
Rachel Hasson
Rachel is studying a part time LLM in Gender, Conflict and Human Rights at Ulster University. She is keen to help provide more representation for disabled and neurodivergent people in activism spaces and the student movement. She helped to set up the first ever Inclusion society at Queen’s University Belfast in 2020, with the society winning an SU Award for Championing Wellbeing. As someone with invisible disabilities she is passionate about creating greater awareness of the issues that disabled students face and to help create a world that empowers, respects and values disabled people.
Emer Munnelly
Emer Munnelly is a Third Year English Studies student at Trinity College Dublin. Emer has always been so passionate about helping other young people, which led them to join the Disability Advisory Board and advocate for accessibility in education, especially given their role this year. Emer was part of the Mindspace Mayo Youth Panel (2021–2023), representing youth mental health at events like the European Youth Event in Strasbourg in 2021. At Trinity, they have served as TCDSU Welfare and Equality First Year Rep (2022-23), JCR Welfare Officer for Trinity Hall (2023-24) , and currently as TCDSU Officer for Students with Disabilities.
Nicole Leblique
Nicole is a final year student studying BSc in Education and Training in DCU. They believe possessing invisible disabilities themselves, has instilled a strong passion for disabled advocacy in them as well as lending them a deep rooted desire to seek change. Nicole is very grateful to AHEAD and looks forward to working with them and the fellow advisory members in striving to achieve a more accessible and inclusive education system.
