Disabled Person in United Kingdom

Definition of Disabled Person

In accordance with the work A Dictionary of Law, this is a description of Disabled Person : Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, a person who has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term effect on his abilities to carry out day-to-day activities. The Act makes it an offence to discriminate unjustifiably against anyone who is disabled. Discrimination occurs when a disabled employee (or interviewee) is treated less favourably by an employer (or potential employer) than someone without a disability, unless the employer can show that the difference in treatment is justified. Thus it is illegal for employers to refuse to employ someone qualified to do a job, simply because that person has, or has had, a physical or mental disability. In addition, employers have a duty to make alterations to premises to aid disabled employees. However, the law does not apply to employers with fewer than 15 employees (i.e. after all staff at all branches are aggregated).

On 5 March 2001 the government announced plans for significant changes to the Disability Discrimination Act. These include removal in 2004 of the small employers’ exemption. The shape of any future proposal will be influenced by the need of the British government to comply with the recently issued EC Framework Directive 2000/78, which seeks to implement the extended role of the European Union with respect to the elimination of discrimination.