{"id":221246,"date":"2026-01-01T06:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T06:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/221246\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T06:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T06:44:08","slug":"everyday-obstacles-a-constant-worry-for-irelands-300000-visually-impaired-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/221246\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday obstacles a constant worry for Ireland\u2019s 300,000 visually impaired \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Declan Meenagh had just \u201cwasted half the morning\u201d trying in vain to apply online for a Revolut<\/a> credit card and was feeling angry. <\/p>\n

The 36-year-old, who is visually impaired, was unable to complete the identity-verification part of the process which required him to provide a video selfie. <\/p>\n

Mr Meenagh was born with a rare genetic condition and has \u201cabout 5 per cent sight\u201d. He is one of almost 300,000 people in Ireland with visual impairment or blindness \u2013 about six per cent of the population \u2013 according to the 2022 Census<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He can make out shapes and light but is almost fully blind. \u201cIt is like looking through a tiny straw,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has remained stable and I am pretty lucky with it, but I could lose it all at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Revolut ID verification which has so exasperated Mr Meenagh required him to move his face to various angles within an oval shape on his phone\u2019s screen for the app to match it against the identification document he provided. <\/p>\n

He could not see the oval shape, so he was unable to keep his face within it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are text instructions as I am trying to video myself,\u201d he says. \u201cI am trying to position my face for the verification.\u201d <\/p>\n

During his struggle to do this, a message eventually appeared on his screen saying: \u201cWe couldn\u2019t verify your selfie.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone with sight was doing this, they would have it done in minutes,\u201d he says. \u201cThis, to me, is very inaccessible. Sighted people can get a credit card in minutes. I made about three attempts and then I contacted customer service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the European Accessibility Act, which came into force in June, 2025, all services including banking must be accessible to disabled people. <\/p>\n

Later that day, Mr Meenagh made a formal complaint to Revolut. It was upheld. The company told him the \u201cfailure of our internal support system to immediately provide the human-led workaround pathway following the identification of an accessibility barrier constitutes a significant service failure\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Revolut spokesman said it was \u201cdedicated to ensuring that our digital banking services are accessible to all customers, including individuals with disabilities and additional needs\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Declan MeenaghDeclan\u00a0Meenagh in Dublin City centre. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien \/ The Irish Times <\/p>\n

On a Dublin<\/a> street, Mr Meenagh walks from his workplace at a community centre in the north inner-city to O\u2019Connell Steet. He uses a white stick in a back-and-forth sweeping motion on the ground in front of him. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou are constantly on guard with the stick,\u201d he says. \u201cIf your attention slips for a minute, you don\u2019t sweep as much, you will miss something and you will walk into it. It could be a lamppost, bollards, a fence, bikes. You could fall on uneven paving. Then there\u2019s dog poo and things the same consistency as poo. Maybe vomit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning on to Parnell Street, he almost walks through dog faeces. \u201cI would have had no way of knowing that was there, could have walked straight on to it. That dog-owner had no respect for me, older people, wheelchair users. I could have been on the way to a medical appointment, a job interview.\u201d <\/p>\n

At the Luas<\/a> stop at the bottom of O\u2019Connell Street, he says he often wants to get the tram to Broombridge, as opposed to the one that stops well short of that, at Parnell. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is no way for me to know which one is stopping here,\u201d he says. \u201cSighted people get information by looking at a screen. We do by announcement.\u201d <\/p>\n

Luas stops do not have announcements informing commuters about where approaching trams are headed. Mr Meenagh says this is something that could easily be rectified and would make a big difference to visually-impaired people. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are people [on the platform], I will ask \u2013 and people are very good.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, if there is no one around to ask, he must go to the front of the tram, hoping to get the driver\u2019s attention to ask them. \u201cThis is a very inaccessible design from a mode of transport that is actually quite accessible.\u201d <\/p>\n

These may all \u201cseem like small things\u201d, he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s all the small stuff that adds up to really disable people like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transdev is the Luas operator. When asked why there are no on-platform announcements, a spokeswoman for the company did not address this. <\/p>\n

As part of a lengthy statement on accessibility, she said: \u201cFor customers who are visually impaired, have hearing loss, or have combined visual and hearing impairments, Luas provides a layered approach to information, including tactile platform layouts, high-contrast visual displays, audio announcements, on-board induction loops and staff support on request.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Meenagh describes Dublin Bus<\/a> drivers as \u201con the ball\u201d. \u201cThey call out their bus number as they pull into stops where a visually-impaired passenger is waiting,\u201d he says. A company spokesman confirmed drivers were trained to do this. <\/p>\n

\"Declan MeenaghDeclan\u00a0Meenagh crossing Dublin’s O’Connell Street. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien \/ The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Mr Meenagh, a computer science graduate, believes he is \u201cbehind\u201d in his career because of attitudes from potential employers towards his disability. Technology used in many workplaces, for example, is not adapted to accommodate visually-impaired people. He believes he and many others are underestimated by employers.<\/p>\n

He continues: \u201cI genuinely believe people want to do the right thing, will go out of their way to help. But the head space in the workplace is, \u2018how can he work if he can\u2019t see around the office?\u2019. There isn\u2019t enough bias training that names the biases and shows the flaws in them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a disabled person, you build up a lot of skills in terms of just dealing with problems, solving them. We are the most resilient, most talented people there are.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article is part of a series<\/a> highlighting the barriers faced by disabled people in Ireland to realising their rights to participate fully in education, employment, housing, transport and society. Tomorrow: How accessible is public transport?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Declan Meenagh had just \u201cwasted half the morning\u201d trying in vain to apply online for a Revolut credit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[420,61,60,14350,43,8581],"class_list":["post-221246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-disability","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-luas","tag-news","tag-revolut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}