Dónal Rice

Dónal Rice is the Senior Design Advisor, ICT for the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design (CEUD) at the National Disability Authority of Ireland. Dónal leads the CEUD’s higher education programme.  He runs the Universal Design Grand Challenge Student Awards and supports programmes for the development of curriculum for architecture, technology and product design courses.

Dónal has managed the development of a range of resources for ICT developers and designers including the “Universal Design guidelines for Digital TV Equipment and Services”[1] and “Universal Design Guidance for Online Public Services”[2]. He is involved in national, European and international standards development and chaired the development of the CEN Workshop Agreement on Curriculum for Training Professionals in Universal Design.

 Dónal has over 15 years experience working on accessible and user-centred designed ICT projects. He was a web developer on the OASIS website (now www.citizensinformation.ie) before moving to the National Disability Authority.   There he worked extensively with public authorities in improving the usability and accessibility of their customer-facing ICT systems through the NDA’s Excellence through Accessibility awards. He later joined the NDA's Centre for Excellence in Universal Design as their Senior Design Advisor in ICT. The CEUD is dedicated to the principle of universal access, enabling people in Ireland to participate in a society that takes account of human difference and to interact with their environment to the best of their ability.

Dónal is currently undertaking a Ph.D in Law.  He lectures in law and policy related to universal design in NUI Galway and through his Ph.D research is a frequent contributor to reports and events by the UN, UNESCO and the ITU.

[1] http://www.universaldesign.ie/DTV

[2] http://www.universaldesign.ie/web