Every disabled person in Ireland has the full rights of this constitution without qualification or diminishment. Disability is not a deficit. It is a difference, and it is a difference that the state has an active duty to accommodate so that every disabled person may participate fully in Irish life.
Every disabled person has the right to independent living — to live in the community, to make their own decisions, and to receive whatever support makes that independence genuinely possible. Institutionalisation shall never be imposed upon a disabled person where community-based support is achievable. The right to choose where and how one lives is not a privilege. It is a right that belongs to every person regardless of the nature of their disability.
All public infrastructure, public services, public buildings, public transport, and public information shall be genuinely accessible to disabled people. Inaccessibility is not a neutral inconvenience. It is a constitutional failure. The state has an active and enforceable duty to achieve and maintain full accessibility, with progress independently audited and publicly reported every year.
No disabled person shall be discriminated against in employment, education, housing, healthcare, or any other area of public life. Merit and ability, assessed fairly and with reasonable accommodation, are the only legitimate bases for decisions affecting disabled people in any of these areas.
The voice of disabled people shall be heard in all decisions that affect them. No policy concerning disability shall be designed or implemented without genuine consultation with disabled people and their representative organisations.
The social welfare provisions of Article 70 and the recognition of care work in Article 68 are essential supports for the independent living rights established in this article.