Part II: Employment

The Act covers all employers apart from the armed services.
Employers covered by the Act are required to make 'reasonable adjustments' to accommodate disabled employees or job applicants.

Reasonable adjustments include

physical access (like installing a ramp or a widening a doorway),

providing equipment (like a telephone amplifier, text-to-speech software, or a suitable chair),

or flexible working arrangements (like changing working hours, time off for treatment, a signer at the job interview, etc).
The decision on whether an adjustment is 'reasonable', will be based on

how effective the adjustment would be in overcoming the problem,

how practicable it is for the employer to carry out the adjustment,

the cost of making the adjustment,

whether it is reasonable to expect the employer to spend that money, and

whether there is alternate funding available.

 

If you require a reasonable adjustment, you should approach your manager/supervisor to discuss the difficulty you have and any ideas you may have for adjustments in order to overcome this.

Your employer should work with you to come up with any reasonable adjustments, if you want help or advice on how to approach your employer, contact One Voice.

 

Disabled employees also have the right not to be discriminated against in terms of chances for promotion, training or career advancement.

The DDA also applies to job applicants – when you apply for a job, a letter or other communication should be sent to you asking you if you have any specific requirements or need any reasonable adjustments to take part in an interview, such as a signer, a reader etc.
If this does not happen, you should contact the employer and let them know your needs, they are required to make reasonable adjustments to enable you to take part in the process.
If you are unsure about this, contact One Voice, JobCentre Plus or the Citizen’s Advice Bureau for advice.

Employers can only treat you less favourably than others because of your disability if they can show the treatment is 'justified'.

The employer must show that the reason for the treatment was both relevant and substantial.
The employer can exclude people with certain impairments from certain jobs providing they can show it is justified in each case.
An employer can exclude a disabled person on grounds of health and safety if s/he can show that the disabled person would expose other employees or others to risk, even with a reasonable adjustment.

If you have a complaint concerning discrimination in employment under the Act you should contact your Trade Union official or an Employment Tribunal within 3 months of the discrimination.

You can find out about some of the Employment cases that have been brought under the Disability Discrimination Act here>>

Bringing a case for Disability Discrimination in Employment

You should try to resolve the issue with the employer, either by meeting with him/her yourself, or via your Trade Union representative if you have one.

If you want to take things further, the next stage is an Employment Tribunal.
If your case is interesting from the point of view of developing the law, the Equality and Human Rights Commission may represent you – call their hotline to find out:
Telephone: 08457 622 633
Textphone: 08457 622 644

In most cases they will not be able to help you so you will need to bring the case yourself or with a representative (friend, CAB officer, One Voice, Trades Union official etc).

There is no legal aid for people bringing a case to tribunal.

The Tribunal is not as formal as a Court – the board is made up of 3 people a Chair who is in the legal profession, and 2 laypeople.

To take your case to Tribunal, you must apply within 3 months of the discrimination, using an ET1 form, you can get this from the local Employment Tribunal office, which is in Birmingham:
Phoenix House, 1-3 Newhall Street, Birmingham, B3 3NH
Phone: 0121 236 6051 Fax: 0121 236 6029
Email: birminghamet@ets.gsi.gov.uk
Or you can fill it in online>>

If your case is very weak and you lose, or if you are rude and disruptive at the Tribunal, the panel may order you to pay costs for the other side.