THIRD LEVEL: Dr Patricia Noonan Walsh is the State's first professor of disability studies, reports Anne Byrne
Dr Patricia Noonan Walsh is the State's first professor of disability studies. The NDA Chair of Disability, funded by the National Disability Authority, is based in UCD.
Noonan Walsh says "the chair has been established at a very exciting time. Just last week , there was a seminar at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, which dealt with advancing the UN convention on human rights for disabled people." Meanwhile, the proposed Irish Disability Bill has been withdrawn before it was even debated in the Dáil.
A native of New York City, Noonan Walsh qualified in special education in the US and in clinical psychology in Ireland. She was director of research at St Michael's House, before joining UCD as assistant director of the DPsychSc course in clinical psychology. She later became director of the Centre for the Study of Developmental Disabilities.
UCD has developed a number of prograduate programmes focused on disabilities, in a number of faculties, in the past five years. Noonan Walsh plans to extend the range.
"At UCD, there is a very wide interest in addressing issues related to disability. This extends to disciplines such as architecture, engineering and agriculture as well as the more traditional areas such as education, social studies and psychology."
UCD tries to involve people with disabilities and members of their families, in the teaching process of courses related to disability. "For instance, we have just had a half-day seminar, led by a group of adult self-advocates with learning disabilities," says Noonan Walsh.
She says that disability studies is not a soft option. "I think you can have an imaginative curriculum yet still have the same standards of quality. That would be a value we intend to continue," she says.
"In general, my aim would be to provide students with an opportunity to study disability from a number of perspectives, such as history, sociology etc."
Noonan Walsh has a particular interest in the areas of ageing, inclusive employment, education and quality of life of people with disabilities.
