The Blind Spot

Tina Lowe, UCD Campus Accessibility Officer reflects on UCD’s progress at building an accessible university campus.   Open House Dublin is a free festival of architecture, an annual event taking place across the city and county from 12-20 October 2024. The festival offers a diverse and exciting range of building tours, talks, lectures, workshops and exhibitions. This year the festival will specifi...

Tina Lowe, UCD Campus Accessibility Officer, talks with Sasha Smith, UCD Classical Museum.   Talking about a project to make the museum more accessible by mapping a Navilens self-guided tour of the Classical Museum onto Navilens. The Navilens system uses special QR codes in conjunction with the navigational app. The app was originally developed for people with visual impairment although it has fou...

Tina talks with Catriona Nicholls, a mature student at UCD, about being a student, neurodiversity and participating in the UCD Neurodiversity Working Group. Thanks and Acknowledgement to Jessica Viola for podcast production, recording and editing. Brian Larkin and Agency X for creating the podcast cover art. The UCD Business eLearning team for use of the recording studio and equipment. Credits and...

Tina talks with Eimear Kenneally about what assistance dogs can do and community dogs can do for neuro diveristy. Eimear is a Guide Dog and Assistance Dog Trainer with Irish Guide Dogs. Thanks and Acknowledgement to Jessica Viola for podcast production, recording and editing. Brian Larkin and Agency X for creating the podcast cover art. The UCD Business eLearning team for use of the recording stud...

Tina interviews Eleanor Walsh a performer and an autism and disability advocate. Eleanor graduated from DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in 2017 with a BA in Drama (Performance), and recent credits include What I (Don't) Know About Autism (Abbey Theatre), Home: Part One (Abbey Theatre), and Dear Ireland: Part One (These Four Walls by Sinéad Burke) (Abbey Theatre). She also consults on Relaxed P...

On the season finale of ‘The Blind Spot’, Tina sits down with Allen Higgins, Conor Reid and Jessica Viola to chat about how they developed and created the podcast. The crew chat about why they made the podcast and some of the adversities that they encountered along the way. Most of all, Tina and the gang discuss their passion for making Ireland accessible for all. Listen now to find out more! Show...

The 2021-2022 UCD Student Union members, Ruairí Power, Molly Greenough and Aoife Bracken about making different aspects of student life more accessible. They discuss topics such as housing, consent and their plans to enhance the future of accessibility in UCD. Listen now to find out more! Thanks and Acknowledgement to Jessica Viola for podcast production, recording and editing. Brian Larkin and Ag...

Tina chats with Sean Doran and Kyran O’Mahony from the National Council for the Blind Ireland (NCBI) about the strides technology has made in the last 30 years and the opportunities that new developing technology has made in terms of access for all. Listen now to find out more! Show Information: Home Page - NCBI Thanks and Acknowledgement to Jessica Viola for podcast production, recording and edit...

Three guests from the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, Zita O’Brien, Léan Kennedy and Tim O’Mahony talk to Tina about the positive impact and life changing that having a guide dog makes for people with disabilities. Zita shares the joys of puppy fostering. Also, Tina and Léan share their own personal journeys of having a guide dog and the support and independence their dogs have allowed them to hav...

Tina welcomes Lorraine Gallagher, Information and Training Officer for AHEAD and Architect and UCD Assistant Professor Orla Hegarty about making buildings and streetscapes accessible for all. The trio discuss the everyday difficulties that people with disabilities encounter by just getting around and how we can improve the built environment. Listen now to find out more! Thanks and Acknowledgement...

Tina chats with RTE Sports broadcaster Jacqui Hurley and 2021 Paralympians Patrick Flanagan and Nicole Turner about the changing landscape of sport for people with disabilities. All of the guests share their experiences of the 2021 Paralympics and how they’ve developed their love of sport. Listen now to find out more! Show Information: Jacqui Hurley (@jacquihurley7) •  Patrick Flanagan (@_the...

CEO of AHEAD, Dara Ryder and Ailbhe Connealy meet with Tina to talk about the evolution of access in higher education and the future of it for people with disabilities. Tina shares her own experience of going back to education after her blindness and the support that AHEAD provided for her to do so.  Listen now to find out more! Thanks and Acknowledgement to Jessica Viola for podcast producti...

On this episode, Roger Flood, Fiona Kelty and Dolores Henchin from Dublin Bus chat with Tina about independent travel and universal accessibility. Dublin bus has an independent travel service that encourages and empowers adults over 18 as well as people with disabilities to travel at their own accord and leisure. Listen now to find out more! Notes: The NTA Travel Assistance Scheme  - https://...

Blánaid Gavin, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Deirdre O’Connor, UCD Lecturer and Associate Dean for Equality and Diversity and come on to the show to discuss neurodiversity and invisible disabilities. The women chat about raising awareness for people with disabilities, especially those with invisible disabilities and their day to day adversities. Listen now to find out more! Cred...

My guests today are horticulturalists, Marie Staunton and Christopher Heavey. Although modelling was Marie’s first profession, she found her love for gardening later in life. Since then, she has helped UCD develop their sensory gardens and has worked at the National Botanical gardens with her husband, Christopher Heavey for the last few years. Christopher is also a lecturer at College of Amenity H...

Welcome to ‘The Blindspot’ podcast. I am Tina Lowe and I will be chatting with a diverse group of people sharing their knowledge and experiences - talking about the science, best practice, innovations, issues, improvements, supports, rights, policy, and the basic practicalities of gaining access and being included.  I am currently the accessibility officer in UCD, but people might recognise m...

Get the Lowe-down with Tina Lowe talking about equality and access, accessible-first designs, and discover how we can enable the world for everyone. Let's make access a success! Please rate, like and subscribe for more content.  New episodes to be released summer 2022.  Thanks and Acknowledgement to Jessica Viola for podcast production, recording and editing. Brian Larkin and Agency X fo...