The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) is recommending to Government that disability discrimination law moves away from protecting groups of ‘disabled’ people and in favour of protecting anyone who experiences discrimination on the grounds of an impairment they may have.
A consultation by the DRC between December 2005 and March 2006 favoured a change to the present definition within the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), to one which gives protection from discrimination to everyone who has (or has had or is perceived to have) an impairment without requiring the effects of that impairment to be substantial or long-term as defined by the DDA.
The DRC commented:
"We do not underestimate the significance of this proposal, and have identified a number of potential areas of risk where further attention and action may be needed to mitigate those risks.
More specifically we recommend that the law should be changed:
- to protect all people from less favourable treatment on grounds of or for a reason related to their mental or physical impairment;
- to provide reasonable adjustments for people with impairments where barriers in society cause them substantial or unreasonable difficulties;
- to consider the exclusion of a limited number of trivial conditions from being counted as impairments;
- to consider what steps are needed to ensure that positive discrimination continues to be legal;
- to provide a definition of disability which will ensure the public sector duty to promote equality works effectively;
- to introduce explicit wording to reflect EU Directive’s coverage of people regarded as or associated with a disabled person."
The significant impact of the change would be to shift the focus of attention in disability discrimination disputes from the individual's medical condition to the fairness of the treatment that the person receives.
