Disability discrimination at work is treating an employee or job applicant unfairly because of a disability. The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful in six forms and requires employers to make reasonable adjustments.
What the law protects
Disability is one of nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. The Act gives disability a precise meaning: a physical or mental impairment with a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities (section 6). Long-term has a fixed sense here. The effect must have lasted, or be likely to last, at least 12 months, or for the rest of the person's life (Schedule 1).
This is a legal test, not a medical label. An employee does not need a formal diagnosis, and need not even think of themselves as disabled, to be protected. Some conditions are treated as a disability from the point of diagnosis, including cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis. The 12-month rule is the part employers most often misjudge.
The six forms in employment
- Direct discrimination — treating someone less favourably because of disability (section 13).
- Indirect discrimination — a rule or way of working that puts disabled people at a particular disadvantage and is not a proportionate way of meeting a genuine aim (section 19).
- Discrimination arising from disability — treating someone unfavourably because of something connected to their disability, unless you can justify it (section 15).
- Failure to make reasonable adjustments — not removing a disadvantage you could reasonably have removed (section 20).
- Harassment — unwanted conduct related to disability that violates dignity or creates a hostile or degrading environment (section 26).
- Victimisation — treating someone badly because they raised, or supported, a discrimination complaint (section 27).
What you are obliged to do
The standout employer duty is the duty to make reasonable adjustments. Where a way of working, a physical feature, or the lack of an aid puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage, you must take reasonable steps to remove it — and you, the employer, pay for those adjustments, not the worker (Acas). Failing to make a reasonable adjustment is itself unlawful discrimination, not merely poor practice (EHRC).
Two scope points trip employers up. First, the knowledge condition: the reasonable-adjustments duty and discrimination arising from disability bite once you knew, or could reasonably have been expected to know, that someone is disabled. You cannot wait for a label to be confirmed. Second, the protection covers job applicants and recruitment, not just current staff. It is unlawful to discriminate in how you advertise, shortlist, interview and select, as well as in terms, treatment and dismissal (section 39).
Where the law comes from
Related
This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.