The success of 18 deaf students in completing a diploma course in adult education at NUI Maynooth is a sign of the "fundamental changes" sweeping Ireland, the President, Mrs McAleese, has said.
Speaking at a function in the university to mark the end of the course, Mrs McAleese said the students' achievements represented "a landmark day for deaf people and for people with other disabilities".
Through the use of some imagination, "a mainstream diploma course has been made available to deaf students - without changing the academic standard - but with adaptations to its delivery through the use of sign language".
The breakthrough was occurring in the context of profound change in Ireland, she said. "A new vision of the future is being shaped and moulded, a vision of a society that embraces all classes and creeds, a vision that takes account of the marginalised and the disadvantaged, a vision that sees empowerment as the way forward."
The great success of the Maynooth project had given 18 deaf students rightful access to a conventional education which would otherwise have been denied them, "by virtue not of their disability but of the false barriers their disability was deemed to impose".
The President said that Maynooth was now a "trend-setter" in providing access for the disabled. "Significantly, the `Maynooth 18' are now themselves equipped as teachers with the tools to open more doors - to allow others to break into the world of mainstream education."
