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Disability Discrimination legislation and Disability Equality
Disability Discrimination legislation and Disability Equality
Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005
Disability discrimination legislation exists to protect disabled people from discrimination in the workplace and in the provision of goods and services, among other areas. The terms of the Acts and their interpretation are somewhat complex, but the basic situation is that employers have to make reasonable adjustments to enable disabled people to obtain and keep employment, and service providers have to make reasonable adjustments to remove barriers to access by disabled people.
Detailed advice is available from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (see link below).
Public sector duty to promote disability equality
One of the principal elements of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 is to introduce a duty on public sector bodies to promote disability equality. This means that Kingston Council must:
- Promote equality of opportunity between disabled people and other people
- Eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Disability Discrimination Act
- Eliminate harassment of disabled people that is related to their disability
- Promote positive attitudes towards disabled people
- Encourage participation by disabled people in public life
- Take steps to meet disabled peoples needs, even if this requires more favourable treatment.
The way we will do this is set out in the Equality Scheme, which was adopted by the Council's Executive on 5 December 2006 and is reviewed annually.