Apply or renew your Parking Permit
Disability Awareness in Schools and Youth
Because everyone deserves a place to call home
Home Truths is an awareness campaign brought to you by Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) to highlight the lived experience of people with disabilities in the housing market, and to expose the barriers IWA members face to secure wheelchair liveable housing.
25-year-old Katie Kelly from Co Kilkenny, has a muscle wasting condition ‘Friedreich Ataxia’ and describes her struggle with isolation and loneliness having no choice but to remain in her rural family home, whilst waiting for an accessible home to become available in the city which will finally give her the independence that she so desperately craves and the opportunities that go with it.
“We don’t have a right, we don’t have a voice. I’m looking to live a life with purpose.”
Glenn Quinn is 61-years-of age and from being able bodied all his life is now in a wheelchair due to a degenerating medical condition. Glenn bravely shares the realities of facing eviction and living on the Housing Assisted Payment (HAP). He is now desperately seeking wheelchair liveable housing.
“I need an apartment at one level so that I can function as a human being”.
42-year-old Elitsa Borisova shares her long battle to secure wheelchair accessible accommodation, highlighting her concern about having to move from an area where she feels safe and secure and has established friendships. Although happy that she is not being made homeless she is sad to be saying goodbye to the community she knows so well and wishes it hasn’t come to this. Elitsa, who has an acquired disability from childhood, want choice not charity.
Kaspar Cauns is 42 years of age and lives in Co. Kildare. He suffered a life-changing injury in a motorbike accident which resulted in him spending nine years in a nursing home waiting for a home, and once he got a house he was waiting nearly two years for a Personal Assistant package. He speaks of how ‘low’ he felt, and how there was ‘no meaning’ to his life.
Yvonne Fahy (48) has been living independently in Galway for over 20 years. An car accident in 2000 changed her life forever but story illustrates the positive outcomes that are possible when people with physical disabilities are provided with a suitable home to call their own. “I never thought that it would be possible for me to live independently, because I didn’t have the confidence and courage in myself to do so,” said Yvonne. “However, it was the best move I ever made.”
IWA would like to sincerely thank Katie, Glenn, Elitsa, Kaspar and Yvonne for sharing their own personal home truth in this series of videos which lay bare the harsh and poignant challenges they have faced.
Donations of €250 or over in a year are eligible for tax relief at 45% so your €250 is worth €362 to Irish Wheelchair Association and the people we support with physical disabilities with no extra cost to you
Donations of €21 a month or more in one year are eligible for tax relief at 45% so your annual total of €252 is worth €365 to Irish Wheelchair Association and the people they support with physical disabilities with no extra cost to you.
IWA would like to keep you updated on our work supporting people with disabilities and how you can help.
Learn about our campaigns, fundraising and ways to ensure that people with disabilities have a voice.
We’ll also keep you updated by post. You can change how we communicate with you at any time by emailing info@iwa.ie.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
More information about our Cookie Policy