Access

Trinity College Dublin has a long standing history of promoting equality of access to its educational programmes by students from under-represented groups through its outreach activities, the provision of foundation courses, the operation of alternative admissions routes, and conducting research. College’s Access Plan provides an overview of policy and strategic objectives across a range of access areas for the period 2009-2013.

The Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) are a range of initiatives aimed at increasing the participation rate at third level of young adult and mature students from under-represented socio-economic groups. The programmes were established as part of an overall strategy to address low progression rates to third-level education by students in specific socio-economic groups through collaborative work with schools, parents and communities.

The Disability Service promotes the needs of students with disabilities in Trinity by providing advice, support and academic accommodations in partnership with students and academic disciplines. It provides advice and information to applicants, makes referrals, and advises academic and administrative staff on issues pertaining to barrier free access and disability related issues.

The Mature Students’ Office is dedicated to increasing the number of mature second chance learners entering Trinity College and to supporting them throughout their undergraduate studies.

The Centre for Deaf Studies serves as a centre of excellence in the field of Deaf Studies in Ireland. Its core activities include undergraduate training for Irish Sign Language teachers and Irish Sign Language/English interpreters, general training in the field of Deaf Studies, and linguistic research focusing on describing Irish Sign Language (ISL). Its primary role as a teaching institute involves training native/near-native Irish Sign Language users as teachers of ISL, training Irish Sign Language/English interpreters and broad-based teaching in the area of Deaf Studies.

The National Institute for Intellectual Disability promotes the inclusion of people with intellectual disability and their families. The Institute works to ensure that the basic human rights of people with an intellectual disability are upheld and focuses on lifelong learning opportunities, participative/collaborative research and socialchange.