About Make Way Day

“Make Way Day” is a campaign that brings the disability and wider community together to consider the needs of people with disabilities in the public spaces we all share.

It is led by the Disability Federation of Ireland and is a unique collaboration across Ireland and the voluntary and local government sectors. But most of all it’s about people with disabilities.

But everyone can get involved. And everyone should get involved because we’ve discovered thoughtlessness is the big issue. We’ve compiled a terrible top three of obstacles that stop people with disabilities in their tracks.

  1. Cars parked on footpaths

  2. Bicycles illegally parked

  3. Bins left on footpaths

The revolution starts with you!

Most people are unaware of the problems these behaviour cause and we’ve found a friendly reminder is enough to get most people to change.

‘Make Way Day’ is not about pointing the finger at local authorities, other agencies or random scattered activism. The whole point of the day is making the public aware of an issue that is fully within their power to change. It’s about One impactful, coordinated and decisive day of action.

Leading the charge are people with disabilities. Local authorities and disability organisations supply removable stickers that are used to mark obstacles. “Hey, this blocks my way!” is our message. So, on 25th September each year obstacles that block the way and complicate the lives of people with disabilities for 365 days of the year are highlighted.

Better yet photos and videos are taken and posted and shared on social media using #MakeWayDay20. Our campaign and campaign video went viral in 2017 and one million people saw and shared posts last year.

Access is the most basic of all disability rights. The public footpaths are for everyone and we can all agree on that. In a wider context this one day focuses the mind on people with disabilities, their lives and needs.

The event will take place this year on Friday September 25th, 2020 with support so far from 29 local authorities, details here, http://makewayday.com/.

The campaign was phenomenally successful last year, reaching over 1,000,000 people on social media and appearing on RTE news bulletins across the day.

 

(c) Make Way Day 2020.