ALL IN A DAY'S WORK: Michael Gilroy, sports development officer,DCU

I have a nine-to-five job like everyone else, but no-one else has a job like mine. As sports development officer with responsibility for adapted physical activity, I'm a new creature in DCU, and in higher education in Ireland, it seems. I don't have a "typical day" yet - I'm building it through talking with students about their needs.

I spend the morning interviewing students with a disability. We talk about sport and physical activity, what they can do, what they want to do, and how the university needs to change to accommodate that. Every student I talk to has a different set of needs and a different approach is required to get them involved in varsity sport. It's not their responsibility to overcome the challenges posed by our facilities: it's our responsibility to accommodate every student's needs.

If one of my morning interviewees has an interest in playing rugby, for example, then I spend some time in the late morning researching international practice in the area of rugby for those with special needs. It's amazing what can be achieved if the will is there. I have just returned from the World Congress on Adaptive Physical Activity and was taken aback by the range of sports that can be enjoyed by people with all sorts of sensory and physical disabilities.

I'm hoping to introduce one of the sports I learned about, goal ball, to DCU in the future. It's played in the dark on a squash court using a ball that's detected by sound. Players are blindfolded, so it can be played by teams of mixed visual ability.

There's little or no mixed ability intervarsity sport played in this State at the moment and I'm keen to get that going.

After lunch, I get in touch with the sports officers of the other universities to talk about developing intervarsity competitive events for students with disabilities. As I've said, this is a new area, so I'm working uncharted territory. My job has been funded by the Higher Education Authority through the "Targeted Funding for Special Initiatives 2002" - a joint venture between the sports complex and the disability service at DCU. I have to define my own role and, in a way, offer a model for other institutions.

DCU is currently constructing a swimming pool, which will need to be suitable for all our students. It's my job to ensure that the facility is inclusive. I'm looking at the experiences of other countries in developing accessible aquacentres.

I take great pleasure in this job. I eat drink and sleep fitness and it delights me to get more people involved. I want to open up the university as hub for rugby, rock climbing, adapted canoeing, martial arts - a whole range of sports that people with disabilities want to, and can, get involved in. Right now, there's nothing to stop students joining all these clubs on campus, but for real participation to take place, barriers must be broken down.

After a day of sport-related activity I still use sport to de-stress. I might play basketball with other staff members or go circuit training with the athletics club. At home in the evening I read a lot. I tend to mix research into my leisure reading - there's so much to know about the area of sports and disabilities and I'm very absorbed in it right now.

In conversation with Louise Holden