Irish Wheelchair Association is Ireland’s leading organisation for people with physical disabilities.

We provide a nationwide assisted living service, community centres in every county, a fleet of accessible buses, a national parking permit and driving school service, wheelchair accessible social houses and help young people with disabilities to build employability skills and confidence.

Our flagship sports programme, IWA Sport, is the national governing body for wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and powerlifting and runs sports clubs for children and adults. Many of Ireland’s finest para-athletes started their careers with IWA Sport.

Our Impact in 2020

Our assisted living service delivers 1.3 million hours of service annually.
We managed 50 wheelchair accessible and affordable homes.
Our 116 accessible buses connected wheelchair users with their communities in the absence of a State service.
We provided almost 86,723 days of service in our centres to 2,440 people.
We ran 58 community centres where people with disabilities attend training, socials and therapies.
Our 31 sports clubs encouraged participation in sport for adults and children.
Provided 343 driving assessments and over 827 driving lessons to 180 students.

Our History

Irish Wheelchair Association was set up sixty years ago in 1960 when a group of Paralympians took the visionary move to establish an organisation and services that cater for people with physical disabilities.

View IWA’s History