Hey there, My name is Antonia Virovska and I am the Disability Rights Campaign Coordinator for 2011/2012. I am a third year Genetics student in UCC.  Campaigning for disability rights is a strong passion of mine, so I am honoured to be able to contribute to USI through this role. Last year I was UCC’s first ever SU Disability Officer, so I have experience in dealing with and helping people with physical and mental disabilities. One of my aims for the year is to put this experience and knowledge to use in order to develop more informed and educated student unions around the country. I hope that in turn this will provide better representation and help where needed from the student unions for students with disabilities.

In the coming year, I look forward to working with the Equality officer, and the rest of the officers in the Equality Working Group, to ensure that no further cuts in services for students with disabilities take place. To maintain a level playing field for students with disabilities, the necessary support services need to be kept in place, and to take those away would mean to put these students at a disadvantage, compared to other groups.

Another thing I would like to focus on this year is the destigmatisation of disabilities as a whole in Irish universities. While a lot has been done in recent years to portray disabilities in a more positive light in society, there are still many who, whether consiously or subconciously, view people with disabilities in a negative way.

I believe that college is the perfect time to help get rid of this prejudice, so in order to achieve this goal, I would work with suitable organisations across the country to raise awareness and work towards wiping out any stigma associated with disabilities in higher education institutions. A desired result of this would be that students would be more comfortable about being open about their disabilities in a more accepting society. I would hope that this would be a long term goal for ther USI Equality working group.

I am a very approachable person, so if you have any questions; would like to give an input, or just need  help with anything, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Looking forward to working for you in the coming year,

Antonia