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Disability Discrimination Acts

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 aims to end the discrimination that many disabled people face. This Act gives disabled people rights in the areas of:

  • employment
  • education
  • access to goods, facilities and services
  • buying or renting land or property.

The Act also allows the government to set minimum standards so that disabled people can use public transport easily. The Act defines a disabled person as someone with "a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities". In relation to the education of disabled people the act states that each county, voluntary or grant maintained school’s annual report should include a report containing information on the arrangements for the admission of disabled pupils. Schools are required to take steps to prevent disabled pupils from being treated less favourably, and details of the facilities provided to assist disabled pupils’ access to the school must be given.

The Disability Discrimination Act 2005

The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 was passed by Parliament in April 2005 a. It amends or extends existing provisions in the DDA 1995, including:

  • making it unlawful for operators of transport vehicles to discriminate against disabled people.
  • making it easier for disabled people to rent property and for tenants to make disability-related adaptations.
  • making sure that private clubs with 25 or more members cannot keep disabled people out, just because they have a disability.
  • extending protection to cover people who have HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis from the moment they are diagnosed.
  • ensuring that discrimination law covers all the activities of the public sector.
  • requiring public bodies to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people.

Some of the new laws, including the increased protection for people with HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis, came into force in December 2005. The Disability Rights Commission was set up by the government to help secure civil rights for disabled people and produces guidance and further information on which aspects of life are covered by anti-discrimination law for disabled people.