The Forum of People with Disabilities says it is angry that President McAleese accepted an international disability award because disabled people are denied their basic rights.
The Franklin D. Roosevelt International Disability Award is presented every year to a country which, in the view of the adjudicators, has made noteworthy progress on disability issues. Last year it went to Canada.
This year's award goes to Ireland and was presented to the President, Mrs McAleese, at the UN Building in New York on the first day of her visit to the United States.
The Forum of People with Disabilities said in a statement it found it "ironic that while this award is being presented, disabled people in this country are still struggling to have their basic human rights recognised".
"We have one of the worst transport systems for disabled people in Europe; 80 per cent of Irish disabled people are unemployed, a figure that has not changed for 30 years; and disabled people still live in residential centres with no monitoring of their quality of life," it said.
The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is to highlight disability issues for the next 10 days in an attempt to raise public awareness of what disabled people can offer society.