Accessible Education – Rhys Kearney

Accessibility is for everyone, not just those of us with a diagnosis! For you, not just for me!

Tell us about yourself, your campaign, and what your campaign is all about.

Okay. Nice to meet you. My name is Rhys. I’m running for Accessible Education officer here in Queens. I’m from Cork in the Republic of Ireland, and I’m doing a Master’s in Marketing here in Queen’s. But actually, I was an Art student in my undergrad, in which I did Theatre and Sociology. I’m running because I think that accessibility should be more than just those of us with a diagnosis. I know I was diagnosed very late, and if I had had access to things that I think that I do now, I think it would have made my college life, university life, so much easier. So I think that’s the main reason I’m running, that more people should have access.

Do you think there’s been any differences? Have you seen any differences in approaches to accessibility that you’re maybe inspired by or maybe not inspired by in Cork?

For sure, yeah. So I had access to the disability aid in UCC, and I had access to the ones here in Queens. And the main difference I remember asking about when I got to Queen’s was, do you guys have dedicated spaces for neurodivergent students? Do you have dedicated spaces for quiet study? Because I personally get very overwhelmed in the libraries when it’s large amounts of people. Even though it’s quiet, it’s just the large amounts of people. In UCC, we had something dedicated to that, and it made my grades went up just from that alone. So, yeah, there are inspirations that I’m taking from my previous university here into Queens with that open mind.

What experience and skills do you have in representing students?

I have been Editor-in-Chief on a society magazine in UCC. So that was a lot logistics and running and hearing people’s thoughts and concerns and then changing stuff for that. So there was that. There was… Let’s see. I was class rep back home in UCC, and so constantly discussing with the Department, bringing concerns back. So yeah, there was these kinds of stuff.

That’s great. So just a bit more, what do you think of the main issues we should be focusing on a clean and successful accessibility?

So first one that I think I’m bringing from back home is for international students or even just students who speak a second language. I personally speak Irish. Sure, Munster Irish. But translation dictionaries in exam settings. So that would make it so that it’s equitable across the language. So assume, like I said, I’m a Marketing student. Assume there’s a student who speaks Spanish or something, you You go into the exam and you just have a translation dictionary there so that if there’s a word you don’t quite understand, you can have it translated into the language you do understand. It gives no particular advantage to these students. It only makes it equal for everyone in their understanding. I think that that’s a massive point.

Another point is, we all know NHS and cost of living crisis and stuff is all very difficult to access up here, again, especially for international students or students who have just moved here from even the UK. An urgent healthcare fund would be fantastic. You have a minor infection, you can’t get a hold of an NHS GP, a small fund so that you can get a hold of a private GP faster. That would just make people’s life so much easier in order to access their education without having to worry about finances and health. So these kinds of things, I think, could make a great difference here in Queens.

How would you reckon you would deal with any pushback or stagnancy in the university in terms of policy? I know you mentioned, I think, drug policy or drug initiatives in your campaign.

So the main drug policy I had in my manifesto was drug harm reduction. That is not necessarily to advocate that drugs are a good thing. In fact, this is quite the opposite. Drug harm reduction assumes that people are going to be people and people are going to get a hold of drugs in some way, shape, or form. The best thing you can do for them is at the very least make sure that they are safe. I feel very passionate about this. At the very least, make sure that they are safe if they are choosing to do that. The best thing is obviously stay away from it. But if addiction is a disease, it is not a moral standing. People deserve to be safe if they so feel like they need to go on that route. That’s how I feel about the drug harm reduction. If people have a problem, they do not have to engage. They are welcome to avoid the drug harm reduction policy that I have. But I feel very personally that safety… This is why my urgent healthcare fund, people’s health comes first, and that’s how you access the best education.

If you have to summarise your campaign in five words or less, what would it be?

For you, not for me.

You mentioned the McClay earlier. What would be your favourite part of the McClay to study, if you’re ready?

Anywhere that there’s less people. I’m a bit… I like my… We probably all do, our little spots… I don’t go in often enough to have a specific designated area that I head to. But yeah, I know there’s the comfy seats in the quarters and stuff. Those are the best ones for me because they come up and over. So they feel a little bit more cosy.

You can read Rhys’ manifesto here.