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The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA 1995) is a UK parliamentary act of 1995, which makes it unlawful to discriminate against people in respect of their disabilities in relation to employment, the provision of goods and services, education and transport. It is a civil rights law. Other countries use constitutional, social rights or criminal law to make similar provisions. The British Government set up the Disability Rights Commission to provide support for the Act. Equivalent legislation exists in Northern Ireland, which is enforced by the Northern Ireland Equality Commission.

It is still permissible for employers to have reasonable medical criteria for employment, and to expect adequate performance from all employees once any reasonable adjustments have been made.

In addition to imposing obligations on employers, the DDA 1995 places duties on service providers and requires "reasonable adjustments" to be made when providing access to goods, facilities, services and premises.

The duties on service providers have been introduced in three stages:

• Since 2nd December 1996 - It has been unlawful for service providers to treat disabled people less favourably for a reason related to their disability;
• Since 1st October 1999 - Service providers have had to make 'reasonable adjustments' for disabled people, such as providing extra help or making changes to the way they provide their services.
• Since 1st October 2004 - Service providers may have to make other 'reasonable adjustments' in relation to the physical features of their premises to overcome physical barriers to access.

Contents 1 Amending legislation 2 Principles 3 Other jurisdictions 4 See also 5 External links

The ACT has been amended by the following legislation:

• The Disability Rights Commission Act 1999, which replaced the National Disability Council with the Disability Rights Commission (DRC);
• The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 inserted new provisions in Part 4 of the DDA 1995 in connection with disability discrimination in schools and other educational establishments;
• The Private Hire Vehicles (Carriage of Guide Dogs etc) Act 2002, which prevented operators of such vehicles refusing to take assistance dogs, or making additional charges for such dogs.
• The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations 2003, and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Pensions) Regulations 2003 which amended the DDA in line with the EU employment directive.
• The Disability Discrimination Act 2005, which completed the implementation of the Disability Rights Task Force recommendations, including the extension of the DDA 1995 to cover public transport, and the introduction of a duty on public authorities to promote equality for disabled people.

The details of the positive duty to promote equality are discussed in Delivering Equality for Disabled People

A consultation document on the use of other regulation-making powers can be found here

The Equality Act 2006 makes provision for the replacement of the DRC by a new Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR), with powers to issue guidance on and enforce all the equality enactments (covering race, sex, disability, religion and belief, sexual orientation and age). The CEHR is expected to begin operation in October 2007.

The DDA 1995 departs from the fundamental principles of older UK discrimination law (the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Race Relations Act 1976). These Acts depend on the concepts of direct discrimination and indirect discrimination. However, these concepts are insufficient to deal with the issues of disability discrimination.

The core concepts in the DDA 1995 are, instead:

• less favourable treatment for a reason related to a disabled person's disability; and
• failure to make a "reasonable adjustment".

"Reasonable adjustment" or, as it is known in some other jurisdictions, 'reasonable accommodation', is the radical concept that makes the DDA 1995 so different from the older legislation. Instead of the rather passive approach of indirect discrimination (where someone can take action if they have been disadvantaged by a policy, practice or criterion that a body with duties under the law has adopted), reasonable adjustment is an active approach that requires employers, service providers etc to take steps to remove barriers from disabled people's participation. For example:

• employers are likely to find it reasonable to provide accessible IT equipment;
• many shops are likely to find it reasonable to make their premises accessible to wheelchair users;
• councils are likely to find it reasonable to provide information in alternative formats (such as large print) as well as normal written form.

The Disability Rights Commission's Codes of Practice give more information to bodies with duties on assessing whether a particular adjustment is reasonable. In general, the factors to consider would include:

• whether the proposed adjustment would meet the needs of the disabled person;
• whether the adjustment is affordable;
• whether the adjustment would have a serious effect on other people.

Sometimes there may be no reasonable adjustment, and the outcome is that a disabled person is treated less favourably. For example, if a person was not able to understand the implications of entering into a mortgage or loan agreement, and they did not have anyone authorised to act for them, it would not make sense to require a bank or building society to enter into that agreement. The Act therefore permits employers and service providers to justify less favourable treatment (and in some instances failure to make a reasonable adjustment) in certain circumstances.

The system of protection of disabled people, especially those with mental health problems to keep their homes, has been greatly enhanced by certain recent rulings in the UK Court of Appeal -- City of Manchester v Romano -- [1] .

Under the act it is unlawful to discriminate against a disabled person by evicting them or subjecting them to other detriment unless justified under the limited number of justifications set out in the act.

In practice the only relevant justification is that the landlord believes and also that it is objectively necessary for the protection of the health or safety of the disabled person or someone else

Where the cause of the taking of proceedings is eg rent arrears which was caused by the disability eg by Housing Benefit being cancelled through non response to correspondence and the non response was caused by the disability Then not only is it discrimination it is discrimination which cannot be justified on the grounds allowed in the act. This applies whether or not the landlord knew of the disability. This applies even if

the landlord has a mandatory ground for possession, e.g.

2 months rent arrears or

2 months notice no reason in cases of assured shorthold tenancy where the actual reason is rent arrears

the tenancy is one where there is no statutory system of protection, e.g.

where in LA temporary accommodation under the homelessness duty

the tenacy is a business tenancy

The tenant may counterclaim and seek an injunction restraining the landlord from continuing the possession proceedings

The judges were very worried about the extent of the law and urged the UK parliament to change it. However there has since been a new act of parliament and there was no weakening of this protection.

See Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 for corresponding US legislation - though this does not have a positive equality duty.

See Ontarians with Disabilities Act for the corresponding legislation in Ontario, Canada.

• Easy Access on public transport, etc

• Official text of the statute as amended and in force today within the United Kingdom, from the UK Statute Law Database
• Disability Rights Commission
• Article on DDA from Directgov - UK govt information
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and Disability Discrimination Act 2005 at Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (NB this shows the Act as passed in 1995, and does not incorporate later revisions).
• Building websites to comply with the UK DDA
• Disabled Go List of resources from Disabled Go, a website founded by wheelchair user Gregory Burke