“By creating we think, by living we learn” Patrick Geddes
3.1 Under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), a disabled person is defined as someone who has 'a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his (or her) ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities' (Sch1, Part 1). This definition covers a wide range of physical, mental and sensory impairments, including specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, and includes people with chronic health conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy, and depression. Since December 2005, the definition also includes people with cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis from the point of diagnosis, and the requirement for mental illness to be clinically well recognised has been removed.
3.2 The DDA (1995) (Part 2) places statutory duties on employers to make reasonable adjustments to meet the needs of disabled employees, including those who become disabled during the course of their employment, and makes it unlawful to discriminate against a disabled person in relation to staff recruitment and retention. It is also unlawful to subject a disabled employee to harassment for a reason which relates to his or her disability. The duty to make reasonable adjustments include adjustments to policies, practices and procedures and the physical environment. Following the introduction of the DDA Amendment Regulations in 2004, the DDA Part 2 also requires the University to liaise with work placement providers and external professional bodies to ensure that reasonable adjustments are made to work placements to meet disabled students' needs and that professional competence standards do not create unnecessary barriers for disabled students.
3.3 The DDA (1995) (Part 3) places statutory duties on providers of goods, facilities and services to the public (and those selling, letting or managing premises), to make reasonable adjustments to meet the needs of disabled people accessing those services and makes it unlawful to treat disabled people less favourably than other people. The duty to make reasonable adjustments include adjustments to policies, practices and procedures, the provision of auxiliary aids and services and adjustments to the physical environment. These must be made in anticipation of the needs of disabled people.
3.4 The DDA was extended to education following the introduction of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) in 2001 (Part 4 of the DDA). This legislation makes it unlawful for education providers (schools, colleges and universities) to treat disabled students less favourably than other students in admissions and exclusions, and in the services they provide 'wholly or mainly for students'. This includes, but is not restricted to, all aspects of recruitment, teaching and learning, research facilities, assessment and examination arrangements, library and IT resources, student support services, residential and leisure facilities and the physical environment.
The legislation also requires education providers to make reasonable adjustments to provision where disabled students would otherwise be substantially disadvantaged. Reasonable adjustments must be made in anticipation of disabled students' needs as far as possible and include adjustments to policies, practices and procedures, the provision of auxiliary aids and services and adjustments to the physical environment.
3.5 The DDA (Amendment) (Further and Higher Education) Regulations 2006 amended the post-16 provisions of Part 4 of the DDA to implement the European Employment Framework Directive (2000/78/EC) in respect of vocational training in further and higher education from September 2006. The main changes are: a new direct discrimination duty, the removal of the justification defence for a failure to make reasonable adjustments, a new harassment duty, the reversal of burden of proof, a new duty prohibiting discriminatory advertisements, a new duty prohibiting instructions or pressure to discriminate, new specific duties that apply after the relationship between the student and education provider has ended, and new specific provisions in relation to qualifications and competence standards. The Code of Practice for post-16 education has been revised to take account of these changes.
3.6 The DDA (2005) extended the definition of disability (as noted in 3.1) and introduced the Disability Equality Duty (DED) from 5th December 2006 (Part 5a of the DDA). This legislation places a General Duty on public sector authorities, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need to:
3.7 Key public sector authorities (including universities) are also subject to Specific Duties under the DED. These duties require public authorities to publish a Disability Equality Scheme (DES) (by 4th December 2006) setting out how the authority intends to fulfil the requirements of the General Duty. Public authorities must:
3.8 The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) has produced Codes of Practice to support the implementation of each Part of the DDA.
3.9 The University as an employer, an education provider, a provider of goods, facilities and services, and as a public sector authority is subject to all Parts of the DDA (as noted in 3.2 to 3.7).
3.10 The University is committed to tackling disability discrimination across all its functions and activities and to being proactive in promoting disability equality to meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act and Disability Equality Duty. The University also acknowledges that some people may unconsciously or unwittingly discriminate and will tackle any behaviour which may act as a barrier to specific individuals or groups.
3.11 The University recognises the need to respond to changes to legislative requirements and will review this Disability Equality Scheme in light of any such changes, in particular the introduction of the Equality Act (2006) and the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights.
Next - 4. Social Model of Disability
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