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Disability - Legislation
The Disability Discrimination Act
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 aims to end the discrimination that many disabled people face. This Act has been significantly extended, including by the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. It now gives disabled people rights in the areas of:
- employment
- education
- access to goods, facilities and services, including larger private clubs and transport services
- buying or renting land or property, including making it easier for disabled people to rent property and for tenants to make disability-related adaptations
- functions of public bodies, for example issuing of licences
The Act requires public bodies to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. It also allows the government to set minimum standards so that disabled people can use public transport easily.
One of the more controversial areas of the DDA is the definition of disability. Only applicats who can show that they have a disability within the definition of the Act can claim unlawful discrimination.
Disability is definied by the Act (s.1) as 'a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on [the person's] ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities'. Many cases that have reached the Employment Tribunal have centred on whether or not the complainant does in fact have a disability within the meaning of the Act. There is no statutory list of conditions that are covered, but examples that have been upheld include epilepsy, back injury, cerebal palsy, diabetes, migranes, dyslexia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Difficulties have arisen over the meaning of 'substantial' and 'long-term'.
'Substantial' has been interpreted as being 'more than minor or trivial' rather than 'very large'.
The effect of impairment is deemed to be 'long term' if it has lasted, or is likely to last, at least 12 months, or is likely to last for the rest of the applicant's life.
