DS People and Culture Charter
The Trinity disAbility Service (DS) first introduced its Work Life Balance Charter in 2023 to recognise the importance of creating a supportive, flexible, and sustainable working environment for staff. The Charter reflected the Service’s commitment to promoting staff wellbeing, supporting positive working practices, and enabling colleagues to balance professional responsibilities with their personal lives.
Download the Work Life Balance Charter 2023
Since 2023, both Trinity College Dublin and the disAbility Service have undergone significant change. The launch of Thrive: Trinity’s Strategic Plan 2025–2030 has placed renewed emphasis on creating the conditions for people to flourish through its three pillars of Purpose, People, and Place. In parallel, the disAbility Service has expanded its strategic role, strengthened its organisational structures, developed new approaches to accessibility and inclusion, and increased its contribution to institutional change across the University.
To reflect this evolution, the original Work Life Balance Charter has been reviewed and expanded into the DS People and Culture Charter. While wellbeing and work-life balance remain important foundations, the revised Charter recognises that staff experience is shaped by a wider range of factors including leadership, communication, professional development, accessibility, inclusion, belonging, accountability, safeguarding, and organisational culture.
The DS People and Culture Charter provides a comprehensive framework that supports staff to thrive professionally and personally while contributing to the strategic ambitions of the Service and the University. It sets out the values, commitments, and expectations that guide how we work together, support one another, and create an environment where all staff can contribute meaningfully and reach their full potential.
Aligned with Thrive and grounded in the principles of access, inclusion, belonging, and Universal Design, the Charter reflects our belief that excellent services are built on positive workplace cultures. It represents our commitment to creating a workplace where people are valued, supported, developed, and empowered to lead inclusive change across Trinity College Dublin.
Sustainability Charter
Trinity College Dublin is committed to being a global leader in university sustainability and has been a certified European Green Flag campus since 2013.
Every student and staff member is encouraged to adopt environmentally sustainable practices both on and off campus, helping to reduce our collective environmental impact and contribute to a more just, healthy, and sustainable world.
The Trinity disAbility Service is fully committed to supporting and advancing Trinity’s sustainability ambitions. Since moving to Printing House Square and establishing the Trinity disAbility Hub, sustainability has been embedded within our approach to service delivery, operations, procurement, community engagement, and the development of inclusive spaces.
The Trinity Disability Service is fully committed to being leaders in sustainability and will follow, and lead on, Trinity’s sustainability programmes. When we move to Printing house Square in 2022 we will further this ambition by following the Trinity Disability Hub Sustainability Charter (pdf) (2023).
In 2026, the Trinity disAbility Hub Sustainability Charter was comprehensively reviewed and updated to reflect significant developments in sustainability practice, accessibility, and inclusive design. The revised Charter aligns with the University's Strategic Plan 2025–2030, Thrive: People, Purpose and Place, and reinforces our commitment to creating an inclusive, accessible and environmentally sustainable future for all members of the Trinity community.
Through this updated Charter, the Trinity disAbility Service aims not only to support University-wide sustainability initiatives but also to demonstrate leadership in the integration of sustainability, accessibility, universal design, and social inclusion across higher education.
Quality Statement
The Disability Service places quality of support at the heart of service provision and delivery, a key principle which underpins our strategic plan. The Disability Service is committed to maintaining the highest possible standards and to promoting a culture of inclusiveness, openness and accountability in the work that we do. Since the creation of our service in June 2000, we have continued to develop the expertise required to deliver a high quality, person-centred service.
The Disability Service’s mission, vision and values are identified in the Disability Service Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan serves a five-year term. The objectives contained within link to the Trinity College Strategic Plan, are student-focused, and are reflective of the evolving needs of students with disabilities within Higher Education.
Disability Officers have particular responsibility for the Trinity Needs Assessment Process for all students applying to the Disability Service, and for ensuring that the needs of students with disabilities are communicated to Schools to ensure implementation of reasonable accommodations requirements. This includes oversight of supports for students with disabilities on professional courses in Trinity. These activities are informed by consultation with relevant staff and students and aligned to the Trinity Reasonable Accommodations Policy.
The work of the Disability Service is evidence based and is also guided by relevant legislation; Equality Employment Act 1998, Equal Status Acts 2000-20018, Disability Act 2005 and the Data Protection Act 2018. Disability Officers regularly present at conferences and seminars on the work and impact of the Disability Service, including publication of articles on outcomes for students with disabilities. Qualifications that support this work are relevant undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Psychology, Coaching, Teaching, Health Sciences and Education, such as the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Disability Needs Assessment), the Certificate of Competence in Educational Testing (BPS), the Certificate in Data Protection through the IPA, and PhD research with the Schools of Education and Medicine investigating the relationship between reasonable accommodations and academic outcomes, transition pathways, and disability specific interventions.
Quality of Assistive Technology (AT) support is maintained though membership of the Community Hub for Accessible Technology (CHAT) forum and via direct consultation with working assistive technologists in third level institutions. Assistive technology provides person to person interventions through technological solutions, to enable the student to access an academic curriculum independently, that is without additional human interventions. This is delivered in line with evidence-based research from a wide range of resources such as conferences, journals and discussion lists, and independent research into matching AT to students. Additionally, service-based strategies are also shared with peers within third level institutions via the Association for Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) and also disseminated publicly through the Trinity College Disability Service website.
Maintaining high quality standards for academic support is assured through membership of professional bodies including the British Psychological Society, the Psychological Society of Ireland, the Association of Educational Psychologists, the Association of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, International Coach Federation and the Register of Qualified Test Users. Academic support provides person-centred strategies and interventions which are delivered in line with evidence-based practice, determined by consulting a wide range of professional resources (e.g. conferences, journals, discussion lists), and research specific to disability, neurodiversity, cognitive factors such as Executive Function, and learning theory. Additionally, service-based strategies are also shared with peers, for example, AHEAD and internationally at relevant conferences in the form of webinars and journal articles, and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities such as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Facilitators Badge accredited by AHEAD. In addition, staff in the Trinity Disability Service sit on University and national committee, such as the Department of Education National Access Plan Committee. Participation in numerous European projects such as CHARM-EU and Erasmus projects allowing for sharing of knowledge and expertise.
Occupational Therapy Support is provided by professionally qualified Occupational Therapists, who are registered with the Occupational Therapists Registration Board at CORU and adhere to Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics and standards of performance for Occupational Therapists. Occupational Therapists are also members of the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland and World Federation of Occupational Therapists. The Occupational Therapy Support is a collaboration between the Disability Service and the Discipline of Occupational Therapy in Trinity, with Dr Clodagh Nolan, Assist. Professor in the Discipline of Occupational Therapy in TCD.
Occupational Therapists in the service must engage in clinical supervision and participate in CPD; through postgraduate study, independent research, and attendance at monthly journal clubs with Occupational Therapists from other Dublin Based HEIs as well as from the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities. The approach within Occupational Therapy Support is underpinned by the Person-Environment-Occupation Model (Law et al,1996), client-centred practice and recovery. Assessments and Interventions used within the service are evidence-based, with a number of tools such as the Trinity Student Profile / Electronic Trinity Student Profile and the Unilink Self-Management Programme developed within the service, and the subject of previous and current PhD level research.
The operational and administration of the Disability Service includes financial management of the Fund for Students with Disabilities management of Educational Support Workers, and strategy and policy development. The administrative function within the Disability Service ensures that each of the specific activities or processes it engages with are accurately defined, that the standard of quality expected for each activity is stated, and that metrics to measure these standards are operational. Disability Service staff report weekly, at the end of each Semester, and at the end of each Academic year on Key Performance Indicators specific to the activities they engage with. Weekly reports feed into bi-annual reviews that, in turn, form the basis of the Disability Service Annual Report. Issues emerging are continuously reviewed and form the basis of changes implemented to processes in a solution-focused approach. Procedures and workflows are operational to ensure that reports required by the College or by external bodies (HEA, AHEAD) are prepared accurately, on time, and to the standard required.