Creating change through advocacy, communication access, community and collaboration.
Our work
The Spelling Alliance of Ireland works on two timescales at once: creating practical change now for nonspeaking and unreliably speaking people and their families, and driving the longer-term systemic change that Ireland needs so that communication access becomes ordinary rather than exceptional.
Four key areas of work
Awareness & advocacy
We work to challenge the assumptions made about nonspeaking and unreliably speaking people, and to influence the systems that shape their lives. Where speech is absent or unreliable, understanding is still too often assumed to be absent as well — and that assumption is written into how services, schools and policy operate.
Our advocacy is rights-based. We make the case in public, in consultation processes and directly to decision-makers, and we carry the priorities of spellers into every room we enter.
- Public awareness and education
- Policy submissions and consultations
- Engagement with Government and public bodies
- Advocacy across education, healthcare, disability services and access
- Amplifying the perspectives and priorities of spellers
“Speech is not a measure of intelligence.”
Access to communication
Access to a reliable means of communication should not depend on geography, income, diagnosis or circumstance. Today in Ireland it often does.
We treat that as an equity problem rather than a matter of goodwill, and we work to close the gap between the people who find a route to communication and the people who never get the chance.
- Identifying the barriers that stand between people and communication access
- Advocating for equitable access to appropriate supports
- Exploring bursaries and other access initiatives
- Supporting families to understand the pathways available to them
- Working toward greater recognition of communication access across Irish systems
Community building
We are building a stronger national community around spellers, families, practitioners and allies — one where people are not working it out alone, county by county.
Community is not a side benefit of this work. It is how knowledge travels, how confidence grows, and how spellers find the peers, opportunities and platforms that make leadership possible.
- Creating opportunities for connection
- Supporting peer networks
- Bringing people together through events and shared initiatives
- Strengthening collaboration across Ireland
- Creating spaces where spellers can participate, lead and belong
Practitioner standards & collaboration
The Alliance supports collaboration, learning and the development of strong practice across the spelling community in Ireland. Good practice matters because spellers and families depend on it — that is the measure we hold it to.
- Supporting practitioner connection and collaboration
- Promoting high standards of practice
- Encouraging ongoing learning and development
- Helping families and spellers access clear, trustworthy information
- Building stronger links across the wider communication and disability sectors
The Alliance is not a regulatory or certifying body and does not accredit or endorse individual practitioners.
Speller-led change
Spellers shape this work from the beginning
Speller priorities inform our advocacy, our campaigns and the direction of the organisation itself. Through the Speller Advisory Council, spellers help decide what we take on, how we say it and what we refuse to accept.
Spellers are not consulted once decisions have already been made. Their perspectives shape the work from the outset — in setting priorities, in framing positions, and in judging whether what we do is worth doing.
“The people most affected by decisions should have a meaningful role in shaping them.”
From individual access to systemic change
Helping one person find a route to communication changes a life. Changing the system means the next person does not have to fight the same fight.
Now
Helping people access what currently exists
Clear information, practical pathways and support for families and spellers navigating education, health and disability services as they are today.
Next
Changing systems so future access is better
Policy, practice and public understanding that make communication access, presumption of competence and meaningful participation standard rather than exceptional.
Current work
Live submissions, consultations, campaigns, projects and events are listed here as they open. Each item links through to the full update in News & Events.
- Read more
Policy & Advocacy
SAI Submission to the DARE Review
2026
Help build what comes next
Spellers, families, practitioners and allies all have a part in this. Join us and help create a future where nonspeaking people have genuine communication access, opportunity and influence.