disAbility Hub

The Trinity disAbility Hub is a central space for connection, collaboration and leadership within the University.

disAbility reflects a deliberate choice of language. It recognises disability as a lived experience while foregrounding ability, contribution and potential. Individuals are free to place emphasis where it feels right for them.

Hub signals a focal point rather than a standalone service. Located at the heart of Printing House Square, the disAbility Hub is the place from which disability-related activity, partnership and innovation extend across the Trinity campus.

The Hub supports disabled students and staff to thrive, while influencing how Trinity designs its systems, environments and culture.

The Fourth Space and the Action Plan

The work of the disAbility Hub is guided by the Fourth Space model and embedded within the Trinity Disability Action Plan 2025–2030.

The Fourth Space emphasises partnership, shared ownership and meaningful participation. It ensures that disabled students and staff are not only supported, but actively involved in shaping services, projects and institutional practice.

The Disability Action Plan provides the strategic framework for this work. The disAbility Hub acts as a delivery and demonstrator site, translating policy commitments into practical, visible action across teaching, research, student life and employment. More on the Fourth Space here.

The Leaders’ Project

The Leaders’ Project celebrates disabled Trinity graduates who have made a difference in Ireland and internationally.

Each of the main meeting rooms in the disAbility Hub is named after a Leader, with commissioned portraits displayed in each space. These works, created by artist Tara Kearns, embed lived-experience leadership into the identity of Printing House Square.

Profiles, interviews and examples of each Leader’s work are available on this site.

Student Partnerships

Student partnership is a core activity of the disAbility Hub.

Students can engage in co-creation, co-design and co-production through campaigns, projects and team-based work that build graduate attributes such as communication, collaboration and leadership.

Partnerships include:

· Trinity Ability Co-op

· Disabled alumni

· The wider disabled community

· Student representative bodies

Further detail is available under the Community and Engagement Project.

Community Engagement

The Trinity Disability Community Engagement Project supports disabled students and staff to engage fully in student life and wider community activity.

Grounded in the Disability Action Plan and the Fourth Space, the project strengthens belonging through partnership with disabled people within Trinity and beyond.

Community engagement is understood as shared endeavour rather than outreach alone, supporting inclusion, participation and connection across and beyond the University.

Further information on the Community Engagement Project is available via the dedicated project page.