About us, more information

Why?

Here at the Disability Service, we work closely with disabled students across all disciplines within Trinity, many of whom express concerns about accessing employment. In a bid to support our students further, the Inclusive Internship Programme was developed.

However, we also acknowledge that many of the barriers disabled students face when they first engage with employment are often related to a lack of knowledge by non-disabled employers about disability awareness, and reasonable accommodations. Therefore, the Inclusive Internship Programme fostered a mirrored approach to the programme; supports for interns and supports for employers before, during and after the internships.

How? (Objectives)

The Inclusive Internship Programme keeps its core objectives at the heart of every part of the process. Our objectives are as follows:

What?

 It is important that education regarding employment, communication and self-advocacy for our interns is ongoing and a collaborative experience with the Disability Service. Similarly, it is equally as important that education regarding disability awareness, communication and reasonable accommodations for employers is also ongoing. As a result, we have developed a robust training programme covering a variety of topics.

(Aspects of programme – mirrored support)

2026 Programme Goals

In 2026, our ethos remains the same, but the programme structure is adapting in response to the changing needs of our community. 
 
What's Staying the Same: 
 
The ethos of the Inclusive Internship Programme is going to remain grounded in inclusion and accessibility when it comes to helping disabled students of TCD to access the workplace. 
 
The 2026 edition of the Inclusive Internship Programme will also still be run centrally from the Disability Service with a dedicated team, to allow us to continue to give maximum support to disabled students who take part in the programme. 
 
What's Changing:
 
Throughout the past few years of running the Inclusive Internship Programme, we have become increasingly aware that there is a cohort of students who apply to take part in the programme who are inadvertently overlooked. The number of students missing out on such opportunities has only become more evident as the number of applications continues to rise each year, making opportunities even more competitive. The 2026 iteration of the programme aims to rectify this omission as we strive toward creating a more nuanced definition of inclusion within the Inclusive Internship Programme.
 
The students we noticed who were missing out on opportunities were those who had no prior workplace experience, who felt unsure of their career paths and those who had complex accessibility challenges that may not be readily solved by the most commonly implemented reasonable accommodations. Such individuals, we noticed, were struggling to gain accessible workplace experience opportunities that would 1) fully support their disability-related needs and 2) thoroughly prepare them for the workplace before beginning an internship.
 
Our Aims in 2026: 
 
In short, our aim in 2026 is to rectify this gap and to assist those students through a two-part Inclusive Internship Programme. The two aspects of the 2026 IIP are as follows:
 
 3. A two-month, paid workplace readiness programme hosted within the Disability Service
 4. A one-month paid internship opportunity with a TCD department, school or service
 
Who is this new programme for? 
 
The 2026 iteration of the Inclusive Internship Programme is aimed at the following students.
 
Those who:
 
 1. Are registered with the Disability Service
 2. Have no prior workplace experience 
 3. Feel unsure of their chosen career paths 
 4. Have concerns about how their disability-related access needs might impact them in the workplace