Disability in the United Kingdom

Disability is an issue that directly affects a significant proportion of the population of the United Kingdom. Section6(1) of the Equality Act 2010 defines disability as:

A person has a disability for the purposes of the Act if he or she has a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities[1]

Legislation and government policy

Under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) (1995, extended in 2005), it is unlawful for organisations to discriminate (treat a disabled person less favourably, for reasons related to the person's disability, without justification) in employment; access to goods, facilities, services; managing, buying or renting land or property; education. Businesses must make "reasonable adjustments" to their policies or practices, or physical aspects of their premises, to avoid indirect discrimination.[2]

Since 2010 the Disability Discrimination Act has been replaced with the Equality Act 2010. This act still protects disabled people against discrimination but also encompasses a number of other characteristics including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage, pregnancy, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation.[3]

Policies and legislation in Northern Ireland differs significanny from the rest of the UK.

Employment

The Business Disability Forum (BDF), formerly the Employers' Forum on Disability, is a membership organisation of UK businesses.[4] Following the introduction of the DDA the membership of BDF recognised the need for a tool with which they could measure their performance on disability year on year.

In 2005 eighty organisations took part in the Disability Standard benchmark providing the first statistics highlighting the UK's performance as a nation of employers.

Following the success of the first benchmark Disability Standard 2007 saw the introduction of the Chief Executives' Diamond Awards for outstanding performance and 116 organisations taking the opportunity to compare trends across a large group of UK employers and monitor the progress they had made on disability.

2009 saw the introduction of the third benchmark, Disability Standard 2009.[4][5]

In 2012 the BDF had a number of initiatives to assist businesses in meeting and including the needs of disabled customers and employees. These consisted of The Technology Taskforce (a Business Disability Forum partner initiative which brings together some of the world's largest procurers and suppliers of ICT); Accessible Technology Charter (launched in November 2011) in which the 'Accessibility Maturity Model' (AMM) is a self-assessment tool to enable businesses to identify and plan key policies for accessible and usable technologies.

Social services

A number of financial and care support services, commonly referred to as disability benefits are available, including Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/publication_pdf/odi_definition%20of%20disability%20equality_act_guidance_may.pdf
  2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070928024816/http://www.drc-gb.org/the_law/legislation__codes__regulation/dda_and_related_statutes.aspx. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved April 7, 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ "Independent Living Guide to Equality Act 2010 and How to Deal with Discrimination". Independentliving.co.uk. October 1, 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Welcome to Business Disability Forum". Businessdisabilityforum.org.uk. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Business Disability Forum". Disability Standard. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Disabled People: Financial support". Directgov. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
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