DYSLEXIA ADULTS
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Secretary: John Bradford

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Apart from the most evident disabilities (such as lack of mobility) which fall under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) there are other, less obvious, disabilities that can go unnoticed by employers, for example, colour blindness. By not addressing an employee's condition as a disability under the DDA, employers risk falling foul of the legislation.

A recent survey conducted by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) showed that 52% of people who qualified as “disabled” under the DDA did not consider themselves as disabled. While they might not call themselves “disabled”, they still need protection against being treated unfairly.

Disability under the DDA is classed from the point of diagnosis of a condition; it also covers workers who were disabled in the past but no longer are (e.g. if they had cancer in the past). The legislation means that when it comes to employment it is against the law to treat someone with a disability less favourably than another person.

The DDA also means that an employer has a duty to provide ‘reasonable adjustments' for someone with a disability, in order to help them carry out their job. For example, for someone with epilepsy this might mean allowing an employee time off to recover after a seizure.

People are affected by disability or health conditions in different ways. This can happen suddenly, as a result of accidents or strokes for example, or gradually as a result of conditions such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Some people are affected for some, but not all of the time by their condition, for example people with manic depression. People in these circumstances and some others (such as people with a facial disfigurement) are likely to have rights under the DDA. There is often no defining moment when a health issue becomes a disability, at least for the individual concerned.

The DDA defines a disability 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”.

This week is National Epilepsy Week and charity Epilepsy Action is using the week to highlight what it calls the outdated attitudes of employers who continue to discriminate against people with epilepsy.

According to the charity, employers should ‘confront their prejudices'; figures show that unemployment rates among people with the condition are still unacceptably high.

Dyslexia is also specifically covered under the broad category of a disability which affects “memory, or ability to concentrate, learn or understand”. However, the Regulations stipulate the severity of dyslexia, with the implication that mild dyslexia would not necessarily be covered under all aspects of the Act. The important words here are “substantial and long-term adverse effect”.

Another condition which may fall under the disability definition is the condition of colour blindness. It can be argued that if the task undertaken is reliant upon full colour sight, it could potentially fall under the DDA but otherwise if it is not a sufficient impairment it may not fall within the "substantial" requirement of the definition.

Under the DDA, an employer has a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for any of their disabled employees in order to help them carry out their job.

May 24, 2007

Original Article from the excellent Workplace Law Network.