What is it about?

This research wants to learn about decision making and young people with disabilities in Ireland. It wants to find out what stops young people from making decisions and if young people with disabilities use support to make decisions or what helps them to make decisions. These could be decisions about school, work, money, health and medical treatment, hobbies or socialising. The term support comes from Article 12 of the UNCRPD. It can cover lots of different things that help someone make a decision and everyone’s idea of support can be different. For example, support could be talking to a friend or parent about something, getting information in an accessible way or taking more time to think and ask questions.

Who is working on this?

This project is based at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy in the University of Galway. Clíona de Bhailís is the lead researcher on this project. She is doing this research as part of her PhD. Her PhD supervisor is Professor Eilionóir Flynn. Before starting on her PhD, Clíona was a Research Assistant on the VOICES project. The VOICES project looked at people with disabilities experiences of being denied the right to make decisions or using support to make decisions. It had participants from over 11 countries and 5 continents.