National Education Legislation and Policies

The National Disability Authority (NDA) provides policy advice and participates in consultations relating to national education strategies and related policy areas.

Our advice highlights areas for improvement in the delivery of education for disabled people.

On this page

The Access and Inclusion Model

The goal of the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is to empower service providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience, based on a child-centred model with seven levels of progressive support, ranging from universal to targeted support. It is a programme of universal and targeted support for children with disabilities in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE).

The Access and Inclusion Model is supported by the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design’s Universal Design Guidelines for Early Learning and Care Settings (2019). The guidelines are available on www.aim.gov.ie.

We undertook a study of policy and practice in other jurisdictions in relation to Early Childhood Care and Education to support the implementation of AIM.