The event on 22 March 2023 was presented by Peggy Hughes, a partner in MHC and member of disAbility Legal Network’s steering committee, with the panel moderated by Gerry Kelly, head of MHC’s diversity committee.

The panellists were Stuart Lawler, business development manager with Sight and Sound Technology Ireland; Siobhán Long, national manager of the assistive technology training service with Enable Ireland; Matt McCann, co-founder and CEO of Access Earth; and Katherine Lewis, software engineer, UX designer and accessibility champion at LinkedIn.

Opening proceedings, Ms Hugh highlighted WHO statistics that 1.3 billion people globally — around 16 per cent of the world’s population — are living with a disability, and that all of us will spend an average of between eight to 10 years of our lives in ill-health or with a disability.

A recording of the event can be found on the MHC website.

The disAbility Legal Network is currently working in conjunction with the Law Society’s technology committee to update the technological accessibility section of its Ally Pledge. This is a collated list of assistive technologies which is used within the legal sector.

Lawyers are invited to email info@disabilitylegalnetwork.ie with details of any assistive technology that they think should be added to this list.