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DAO UPDATE: JANE McDERMOTT
- Colm Murphy
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Jane McDermott, Dundalk FC's Disability Access Officer spoke at a recent FAI Licensing Panel discussion. Here, she explains what the role means — and why the fans make it possible.
Jane has been a familiar presence at Oriel Park for years, though she'd be the first to tell you that's exactly as it should be.
As Dundalk FC's Disability Access Officer and Supporter Liaison Officer, she has made it her business to ensure that supporters living with disabilities are not visitors to the football experience, but full members of it.
"My job is to help normalise the idea — and reality — of supporters living with a disability being an active part of match night. Then it becomes no big deal. We're all the same. We're all fans. This is inclusion."
In her own description, the role has three interlocking areas of work: working with the club on initiatives, awareness and improvements to facilities; liaising with local organisations to connect with supporters living with disabilities and help them attend matches; and being a direct point of contact for supporters themselves — giving guidance, having conversations, and, as she puts it, "plenty of craic along the way."
Over the past eighteen months, Jane has also helped build something beyond the club's walls. Working alongside the FAI and Disability Access Officers from clubs across the League of Ireland, she has been central to establishing the Disability Access Officer Network — a collective that meets four times a year and works to raise the standard of accessibility across the game.
Through the network, DAOs coordinate ahead of fixtures so that travelling fans with disabilities receive the right support at away grounds. The FAI's licensing framework now requires clubs to appoint an appropriate supporter to the role and actively work with them to meet accessibility requirements — a shift Jane has been part of shaping.
She has also been re-elected to the Diversity and Inclusion Network Steering Committee for Football Supporters Europe, whose aim is safe, affordable and accessible football for everyone. From June 2026, she takes on the additional portfolio of Female Supporters and Gender Inclusion Lead.
Two examples from Oriel Park illustrate what the work actually produces. The first is the Audio-Descriptive Commentary initiative, where a team of volunteers supports fans who cannot see the game by describing match action and the atmosphere around the ground in real time. One such supporter is Harry, a regular user of the ADC service.
"Harry enjoys Dundalk matches because of ADC. He is blind and lives with an intellectual disability — but mainly he's an avid Dundalk supporter. He teases me like the rest of our fans and is very quick to point out my mistakes."
The second is the club's Downs Syndrome Futsal team, whose players compete, train and wear the Dundalk crest with pride. One recent moment — their captain being stopped for an autograph — summed up what the project has become.
But the memory that stays with many supporters came when the Futsal team were introduced on the pitch at Oriel Park.
"Our fans recognised and acknowledged the players in the same way they would any other Dundalk player. The lads reminded us what our club is really about."
Jane is clear that inclusion doesn't require grand gestures or significant cost — though she's honest that some things do. What matters most, she argues, is a shift in how people think about what "normal" looks like at a football ground.
"It's not about special treatment, not about big fuss. In fact, ideally it's the opposite — it's just what we do. The small things are what make space for us to simply attend and enjoy a football match as part of the club community."
She speaks, too, about the fans themselves — and the quiet, unrehearsed way Dundalk supporters already do this.
"I experience fans every week who don't see any disability — they just see Jane. This is what I want for other people living with a disability. To have that feeling of being seen. Really seen. Fan first, disability… sometimes. My dream is for supporters going to Oriel on a Friday night to focus not on their disability, but instead on their ability to support the team they love."
