Just before Christmas over 250 students with disabilities of varying degrees rang the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD) in Dublin. All had the same questions - they wanted details about a careers day. They wanted to know when and where, the time and the place.

This was the first national careers day aimed specifically at students with disabilities who want to continue on to third level. Career advisors from most of our third-level colleges and universities were present to talk to all who came. They gave them advice and presented them with third-level options.

"For so many of them this was the first time that such an event had been held," says Patricia Callaghan, director of AHEAD, which organised the day. "They came from all around the country."

Students with disabilities want their rights and, at last, a number of organisations are starting to act on their behalf. Last week a steering group set up by the NCCA to look at the curriculum for special schools had its first meeting. On Saturday some 400 teachers attended an INTO conference on the integration of children with special needs into mainstream schools.

At the end of March, a seminar organised by the ASTI, the TUI and AHEAD will also look at mainstreaming disability. The seminar aims to identify the needs of students with disabilities, to exchange information and to document the major difficulties faced by schools and teachers.

Nobody is sure how many students with disabilities are attending mainstream classes in second-level schools. "There is plenty of anecdotal information, but no real figures," says Callaghan.

For the students and their parents, there is a dearth of information about what is possible. The need to establish the facts and address the gaps in their options and the levels of training and resources which are needed or provided has finally been recognised. The tide seems to be turning and, over the past few months, there has been a steady groundswell of interest and activity.

This increased level of commitment may have to do with the outcome in a landmark case last year when the Supreme Court agreed with a High Court ruling that 12-year-old Paul O'Donoghue, quadraplegic and mentally handciapped, had the right to free primary education and agreed that he had been deprived of his rights to be educated like other children under Article 42 of the Constitution. The State accepted its obligations and the case's outcome was greeted as just, a landmark decision and an embarrassment for the then Minister for Education.

Both the 1993 Report of the Special Education Review Committee (SERC) and the Report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities made recommendations for greater participation by students with disabilities in mainstream education. At least 4 per cent of the school-going population have disabilities but "participation by people with disabilities in education at all levels is significantly below that of the population in general," according to the commission's report. Equality is still a long way off if one is to measure the status of people with disabilities by their rate of participation and success in education, it maintains.

The SERC report, the commission's report and now the work of AHEAD, which is funded by the Higher Education Authority, is helping to give a new impetus and urgency to the argument that young people with disabilities should have the option of attending mainstream schools. Many believe that it is parents and their ongoing efforts on behalf of their children that has led to this shift in thinking.

The belief is that students with disabilities are being denied their rights because of lack of resources, lack of will or lack of organisational back-up. More and more parents, teachers, students and organisations believe that it is the right of all young people to choose the school they want to go to.

"I believe that it's appropriate that the right of students with disabilities to equality of access to education be supported by legislation and regulation," says the Minister for Education and Science, Micheal Martin. These rights are enshrined in the current Education Bill.

About 8,000 pupils with one or more specific disabilities are in ordinary classes at primary level, according to 1992 statistics from the Educational Research Centre at St Patrick's College, Dublin. This figure represents just 1.5 per cent of the total primary enrolment.

Before the end of this school-term, AHEAD will undertake a major survey to determine the level of participation of students with disabilities in mainstream second-level schools. The organisation has set itself the task of discovering where the gaps are, where the need is greatest, what resources are in place, what schools need, what students need and where are students are going. The ESRI will be involved in collecting the data for the survey.

At the moment provision for pupils with serious special needs is made in both special and ordinary schools. Some 2,300 children with disabilities are enrolled in 48 special classes in second-level schools, 100 children with specific disabilities are enrolled in five designated secondlevel schools. Others are in mainstream classes, but no figures are available on what percentage they represent.

At primary level, the survey commissioned by SERC found, there were relatively few instances of children classed as "moderate mental handicap" in ordinary classes. The largest group of children with disabilities were found to be those with "significant behaviour problems" - they accounted for 22 per cent of children with disabilities.

The second largest group - those with a "specific learning disability" - accounted for 18 per cent while pupils with "a specific speech and language disorder" and pupils with "borderline mental handicap" were the next in order of frequency.

Ireland is still differentiating between at least 11 categories of disability/learning difficulty. "This country still uses the traditional categories of disability long since abandoned by many other countries to describe and determine provision," says Patricia Lynch, of St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin. She believes, however, that inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream education is being increased by growing parental awareness, a general awareness through the media of international trends and recent court cases.

Michael Shevlin, a lecturer at TCD's department of education, believes that some kind of "special needs advisory council" should be set up to provide schools, parents and teachers with information, support and guidelines. "At the moment," he says, "the system is being operated on a very ad hoc basis. It's very difficult at times to monitor what's happening and how well resourced certain schools are.

"The debate has moved away from one of integration to one of inclusion. Placement is not enough and how to ensure that the children are getting a good education is what must be considered. We should look at the system we have to make the best use of all the expertise in the special schools system and the mainstream schools."

Tony Bates, president of the INTO, agreed at the weekend with this view. He welcomes the fact that the lines between special schools and mainstream schools are becoming blurred. But he also feels that special schools have in the past been ring-fenced. "I think we have to have a lot more inter-mingling. Special schools have huge amounts to contribute. They have knowledge, expertise."

He points out that the age profile of children enrolling in special schools has changed. Children with disabilites are increasingly attending national schools while "they are transferring to special schools around 11 and 12. That is becoming increasingly noticeable."

Bates sees a need to look at this. He would favour dual enrolment - children with special needs could be enrolled in more than one school. "You would have joint curriculum linkages and flexible transport arrangements."

At this stage, he explains, "it's not a question of integration or segregation. It's about interchange. It's not about where but about how best to educate children with disabilities."