The Disability Discrimination Act (1995) amended, covers discrimination against disabled people in employment, providing goods and services, and in Education.
Disability
The Act defines disability as:
A physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the ability to carry out normal day to day activities.
This means you must have had (or be expected to have) the condition for at least 12 months.
The impairment must have an adverse affect on your ability to do things like communicating, seeing, concentrating, moving, lifting, carrying, learning, co-ordination and dexterity.
The Act also covers people with a "severe disfigurement", even though that disfigurement may not stop you carrying out normal activities.
Employment
The Act does not cover the armed forces, firefighters, police, prison
officers, or people who work on ships, aircraft or hovercraft.
Since October 2004 all employers apart from the armed services are covered by the Act.
Employers covered
by the Act are required to make 'reasonable adjustments' to accommodate
disabled employees or job applicants.
Reasonable adjustments include physical access (like installing a ramp
or a widening a doorway), providing equipment (like a telephone amplifier,
or a suitable chair), or flexible working arrangements (like changing
working hours, time off for treatment, a signer at the job interview,
etc).
The decision on whether an adjustment is 'reasonable', will be based
on how effective the adjustment would be in overcoming the problem,
how practicable it is for the employer to carry out the adjustment,
the cost of making the adjustment, and whether it is reasonable to expect
the employer to spend that money, whether there is alternate funding
available.
Employers can only treat you less favorably than others because
of your disability if they can show the treatment is 'justified'.
The employer must show that the reason for the treatment was both relevant
and substantial.
The employer can
exclude people with certain disabilities from certain jobs providing
they can show it is justified in each case.
An employer can exclude a disabled person on grounds of health and safety
if s/he can show that the disabled person would expose other employees
or others to risk, even with a reasonable adjustment
Goods and Services
This part of the Act covers the provision of goods, facilities and
services to the general public (including shops, theatres, railway stations,
solicitors, banks, hospitals, etc); private clubs with more than 25
members are not included, but may be after the Act is amended this year.
Insurance Companies have different rules.
The Act says it is unlawful to discriminate against disabled people
by refusing to provide (or deliberately not providing) a service, or
providing the service on less favorable terms, to a lower standard,
or in a worse manner.
The service provider is now required to
* make reasonable changes to practices, policies and procedures that
make it unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to access their
service
* take reasonable steps to get aids to enable disable people to use
their service (like a loop system)
* provide a reasonable alternative method of making services available
to disabled people where a physical feature makes it impossible or unreasonably
difficult for disabled people to make use of them
The service provider shouldnot wait until a disabled person wants to
use a service before making reasonable adjustments
The decision on whether an adjustment is reasonable will be based on whether it would overcome the difficulty that disabled people face in accessing the service; the extent to which it is practicable for the service provider to take the steps; the cost of making the adjustment; the disruption the adjustment would cause; the extent of the service provider's financial and other resources; the amount already spent on making adjustments; whether there is alternative funding available.
If you have a
complaint regarding goods, services or facilities, you must pursue it
through the County Court. The complaint must be lodged within 6 months
of the discrimination.
If you are seeking financial compensation of less than £3000 the case
must be brought in the small claims court.
DDA documents and links
One Voice publications
Most of these publications are word or pdf documents, right click on the title to download:
bringing a caseFor more information on the Disability Discrimination Act, visit the Disability Rights Commission's website:
http://www.drc-gb.org/
For information on cases already taken to tribunal, visit: