Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 pulls together many different strands of discrimination legislation into a single framework with the intention of simplifying the legislation, broadening equal opportunities and creating a more equal society.

Sensory Trust broadly welcomes the new legislation as a positive step to strengthen and promote equality. The definition of ‘disability’ has changed for the better in the new legislation. To qualify for protection from discrimination, a disabled person no longer has to show that their impairment affects a particular ‘capacity’, such as mobility or speech, hearing or eyesight.

On the Equalities web site the government states:

“Disability has a broad meaning. It is defined as a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. ‘Substantial’ means more than minor or trivial. ‘Impairment’ covers, for example, long-term medical conditions such as asthma and diabetes, and fluctuating or progressive conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis or motor neurone disease. A mental impairment includes mental health conditions (such as bipolar disorder or depression), learning difficulties (such as dyslexia) and learning disabilities (such as autism and Down’s syndrome). Some people, including those with cancer, multiple sclerosis and HIV/AIDS, are automatically protected as disabled people by the Act. People with severe disfigurement will be protected as disabled without needing to show that it has a substantial adverse effect on day-to­day activities.”

Previously, disability discrimination was only unlawful when it happened in relation to work. In practice, the previous law did offer some protection to disabled customers from prejudicial discrimination, but in a different way. The Equality Act 2010 means the ban on direct discrimination will now apply in other areas, such as access to goods and services.

The new Equality Act should also bring the issues surrounding disability back to the top of the agenda as, by the governments own admission, “progress on some issues has been stubbornly slow”. Hopefully we can look forward to more understanding and more uptake of the ideas of social inclusion across the range of goods and service providers

The other interesting thing in the Equality Act 2010 is the idea of discrimination by association. The Equality Act 2010 extends protection to people who experience direct discrimination “because they associate with someone who has a protected characteristic, for example a business must not discriminate against a carer because they are caring for someone with a disability. It is now against the law for a business to discriminate against someone who has caring responsibilities.” As anyone who has worked with Sensory Trust will know, this is a subject very close to our hearts and is something that particularly applies to public space. In practice this means that land owners and managers should be aware that if a family group finds it impossible to access a place because one member of the family is disabled, any member of that group may justifiably feel discriminated against. This could well increase the likelihood of legal action compared with the previous Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

For more information visit Equality Act 2010: What do I need to know? The site provides a comprehensive series of summary guides and "Quick Start" guides to the key changes in the law, produced by the Government Equalities Office in partnership with the British Chambers of Commerce, Citizens Advice, ACAS and the Equality and Diversity Forum, to support implementation of the Act.

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