Legislation

The Disability Discrimination Act gives disabled people rights in the areas of:

• access to goods, facilities and services;
  
  
• buying or renting land or property;
  
  
• employment.

• Since December 1996, it has been unlawful for service providers to treat disabled people less favourably than other people for a reason related to their disability;
  
  
• Since October 1999, reasonable adjustments have had to be made for disabled people, such as providing extra help or making changes to the way services are provided;
  
  
• From 2004, reasonable adjustments will have to be made to the physical features of premises to overcome physical barriers to accessing services.

The Disability Discrimination Act applies to any business or organisation which:

• provides a service;
  
  
• offers facilities; or supplies goods to the public whether paid for or free

Disability Definition
Under the Act a disability is defined as:

“a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on a person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities”.

Therefore, a person whose disability makes it difficult for them to carry out normal day-to-day activities is likely to be a disabled person within the meaning of the Act.  The disability must be more than temporary, it has to have lasted a year (even if the person has since recovered) or be likely to last at least a year to count.

Normal day-to-day activities can be classified under the following headings:

• Mobility,
  
  
• Manual dexterity,
  
  
• Physical co-ordination,
  
  
• Continence,
  
  
• Ability to lift carry or move objects,
  
  
• Speech, hearing or eyesight,
  
  
• Memory,
  
  
• Ability to concentrate, learn or understand
   

The Act defines some-one with a disability under the Act as having ' a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his/her ability to carry out activities'.

Under The Act, someone who uses a wheelchair or has difficulty in walking; someone who is deaf; someone who has significantly impaired speech; someone who is blind or partially sighted; someone who has continuing treatment for diabetes; someone with epilepsy; someone who has a learning disability or someone who has a mental illness, could all be considered to be disabled.  Also protected by the Act are people who have a severe disfigurement.  Someone who was once disabled but has since recovered, such as someone who has recovered from a mental illness, is still protected.  The Act also covers someone whose condition might initially have only a slight effect on their day-to-day activities, but is likely to get worse, such as people with cancer, HIV infection or multiple sclerosis.

Conditions not covered by the Act include: addiction to alcohol, nicotine and other substances; certain emotional/sexual disorders; hay fever; tattoos; body piercing and inability to distinguish between red and green.

For example:

A hairdresser would be breaking the law if they refused to make an appointment for someone with a severe facial disfigurement because they thought that other customers might be upset.

You would be breaking the law if you were a solicitor's receptionist and refused to book an appointment for someone who is deaf because you thought that the person would be more comfortable at another solicitor's where one of the staff can understand sign language.

Imagine you are a waiter in a busy café.  Customers all around you are impatient to be served.  At one table there are two disabled customers with their friends.  Although you know they have been waiting the longest you decide to leave them until last because you know from previously that it will take longer to take their order.  This would be giving them a lower standard of service.

A person with epilepsy is organising a social evening in the town hall for her local voluntary organisation.  Normally rooms in the town hall can be booked without paying a deposit but in this case the manager decides to charge a deposit in case the person has a seizure and causes damage.  This would be offering worse terms.

However, you can treat a disabled person more favourably by making them feel particularly welcome or doing more for them than you do for others, for example, filling in a form on behalf of a blind person or offering better terms such as a reduced entrance fee.
In some circumstances, you may be able to refuse to provide a service to a disabled person as long as your reasons have nothing to do with their disability and you would refuse to serve other customers in the same circumstances.

For example:

A publican could refuse to serve a disabled customer because he is drunk and abusive.  As long as the refusal is not because of the customer's disability, the publican is not breaking the law.

A shop has a policy of not allowing dogs on its premises.  It may be unlawful for the shop not to change this policy to allow an exception for disabled people accompanied by a guide dog or other assistance dog.

An independent cinema has a steep flight of stairs at its front entrance, making it impossible or unreasonably difficult for visitors with a mobility impairment to have access to the cinema.  A side entrance for staff use only is fully accessible and always open.  The cinema decides to allow disabled people to use this side entrance.

A person with multiple sclerosis who uses a wheelchair visits her local insurance broker.  The reception desk is too high for her to lean on to fill in a form so she is given a clipboard to rest the form on and is able to complete it.

What is a reasonable step is likely to depend on the service you provide, the size and resources of your organisation and also what effect the disability has on the individual disabled person.

Where a physical feature makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use a service, service providers will from 2004 have to take reasonable steps in order to:

• remove the feature;   
     
• alter the feature;
  
  
• provide a reasonable means of avoiding the feature or
  
  
• provide a reasonable alternative means of making the service available to disabled persons.    
   

Enforcement Remedies

If the disabled person wins the case, they could win compensation for financial loss, for injured feelings or for both.  They may seek an injunction against the service provider to prevent any further discrimination.

Employers are legally responsible for any acts of discrimination carried out by their employees in the course of their employment, whether or not it was done with their approval or knowledge, unless they have taken such steps as were reasonably practicable to prevent employees doing such acts.

The individual employee who has performed the act of discrimination is legally liable and proceedings can be taken against both employer and employee.

• between persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation,
  
  
• between men and women generally;
  
  
• between persons with a disability and persons without, and
  
  
• between persons with dependants and persons without.

Human Rights Act 1998
 
In legal terms, the Human Rights Act incorporates the rights and freedoms of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into UK law, confirms the abolition of the death penalty and enables individuals to bring cases to court in Northern Ireland, who will enforce these rights if necessary.It empowers UK courts to award damages and provide other remedies to those whose rights have been violated.

It also embraces limitations on rights which the ECHR included to cover unusual circumstances such as war or a public emergency, known legally as 'derogating' from the overall standard of protection, this applied in Northern Ireland where the exceptional level of violence led to limits on legal rights, such as allowing police to detain a terrorist suspect for up to five days without charge instead of the usual 48 hours.

Article 1 is introductory

Article 2
Everyone's right to life shall be protected by law.

Article 3
No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 4
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude or be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.

Article 5
Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person.

Article 6
Everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal by law.

Article 7
No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence under national or international law at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the criminal offence was committed.

Article 8
Everyone has the right to respect for their private and family life, home and correspondence.

Article 9
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Article 10
Everyone has the right to freedom of expression.

Article 11
Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of their interests.

Article 12
Men and women of marriageable age have the right to marry and found a family.

Article 14
The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political, or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.

Article 16
Restrictions on political activity of aliens.

Article 17
Prohibition of abuse of rights.

Article 18
Limitations on use of restrictions of rights.

Article 1 of Protocol 1 (a later addition to the convention)
Everybody is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his or her possessions.

Article 2 of Protocol 1
No person shall be denied the right to education.

Article 3 of Protocol 1
There shall be free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot, under conditions which ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of legislature.

Article 1 of Protocol 6
Abolition of the death penalty.