The Equality Act legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand and strengthening protection in some situations. It sets out the different ways in which it’s unlawful to treat someone. Find out more about who is protected from discrimination, the types of discrimination under the law and what action you can take if you feel you’ve been unfairly discriminated against. From the Government Equalities Office.
Reasonable Adjustments
The duty to make reasonable adjustments was first introduced under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Although the duty under the Equality Act operates slightly differently, the object is the same: to avoid as far as possible by reasonable means the disadvantage which a disabled employee or student experiences because of their disability. The duty also requires education providers to take positive steps to ensure that disabled students can fully participate in the education and other benefits, facilities and services provided for students.
Organisations frequently struggle to know how to respond to the duties that flow from the Equality Act. This can be in terms of the adjustments required in relation to an individual but also at the levels of policy and strategy. It is not a simple or straightforward process determining what is a reasonable adjustment: the necessary or appropriate adjustments might be detailed by a clinician or other such professional but whether they are reasonable is not a clinical question - it's a legal one.
There are helpful and informative guides for particular types of organisation, such as the The Equality and Human Rights Commission's guide for Higher Education Providers and their general Technical Guidance but implementing this guidance is, in itself, often far from simple. And there are clear reasons why taking a multidisciplinary approach is likely to bring benefits. For example, it might be determined that adjustments can be implemented at a course-wide level so that the need for individual adjustments is minimised or eliminated.
