Discrimination against disability

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST DISABILITY
Legislation bans employers discriminating against jobseekers and employees with disabilities, and by service providers against discriminating against service-users with disabilities.
It places a duty on employers and service providers to make reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities. These help them to overcome barriers they may face in gaining and remaining in employment and in accessing and using goods and services. The main activities covered are:

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  employment, including access to employment
  
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  access to and use of goods, facilities and services, including access to public buildings, shops and leisure facilities and to healthcare, housing and transport
  
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  certain other functions carried out by public bodies, such as policing and issuing licences
  
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  membership of private clubs and use of their facilities
  

You can find out more about your disability rights in different areas of life, including accessing and using the services of shops, cafés and banks from the following pages:

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  Your rights if you have a disability
  
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  Access to everyday services
  

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland website also has information on disability discrimination.

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  Work related disability problems(external link opens in a new window / tab)
  
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  Service related disability problems(external link opens in a new window / tab)
  

Special education needs and disability 
Disability discrimination law does not apply to the provision of education in schools, colleges and universities. Instead, disability discrimination about those matters is banned by a different law; which covers special educational needs and disability.
The special educational needs law also means that the owners, governors and managers of schools, colleges and universities have to make reasonable adjustments for children and adults with disabilities. This will help them to overcome barriers they may face in gaining access to a particular institution, and in completing their courses of study there. The law also bans disability discrimination by certain qualification awarding bodies.
You can find out more information about you and your children’s special educational needs rights from the following pages:

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  Learning and your rights
  
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  Education related disability issues(external link opens in a new window / tab)
  

Definition of 'disability'
The law covering both disability discrimination and special education needs defines the terms 'disability' and 'disabled person' in a special way. A person will benefit from the law only if he or she satisfies that definition. 
Not all people who are ill or injured or who have an impairment of some sort will qualify.
The following is only a short and incomplete guide to how this question is to be answered.
Impairments that definitely are qualifying disabilities
Cancer, multiple sclerosis and HIV infection are deemed to be qualifying disabilities from the point in time that a person develops one or other of them.
It does not matter how long a person has the condition or how serious it is at any particular point in time.
Impairments that definitely are not qualifying disabilities
A small number of impairments are deemed by the law not to be qualifying disabilities. These are:

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  visual impairments that can be corrected with eye glasses or contact lenses
  
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  hay fever
  
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  addiction to alcohol or nicotine or drugs (except for properly prescribed medications)
  
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  a tendency to steal, or to set fires, or to physically or sexually abuse others
  
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  voyeurism and exhibitionism
  

All other impairments
For all other impairments, the answer is not as clear cut. There is no official list that specifies whether any other impairment is or is not a qualifying disability. So to decide whether a particular person has a qualifying disability means making an assessment about the length of time and severity of his or her particular impairment and about how it affects his or her daily life.
The relevant test is as follows:

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  it must be a physical or mental impairment that has a large and long-term adverse effect on the person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities
  
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  'long term' for this purpose means that the large adverse effects of the impairment must have lasted, or be likely to last, for at least 12 months
  
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  'normal day-to-day activities' are simply the things that people generally do on a daily basis, for example walking to a bus stop, shopping, doing the housework, speaking on a telephone or reading a newspaper
  

Some people will have impairments that obviously satisfy this test, for example, a person who needs a wheelchair to move about or a person who is totally blind or profoundly deaf is clearly a disabled person.
In many other cases it will be less obvious and a person, such as an employer or service provider, may have to make an own assessment based on medical or other expert reports.
Remember, the definition of 'disability' does not only apply to physical impairments. The definition itself notes that mental health impairments are also covered.
Also, both case law and governmental guidance have noted that a wide range of learning disabilities are also covered, including impairments like autism and dyslexia.
The essential test is concerned with the length of time of the impairment and the severity of its impact on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Remember, this short guide to the 'disability' definition is incomplete. A fuller description would also note some special rules that apply to impairments that consist of severe disfigurements, progressive conditions (other than cancer, multiple sclerosis and HIV infection) and conditions whose adverse effects fluctuate in severity. It would also note special rules about past disabilities and the effects of medical treatment and some other issues.