The Disability Discrimination Act in Education

The Disability Discrimination Act applies to England, Wales and Scotland but not to Northern Ireland. There are, however, differences in the way it works with different education systems and these differences are clarified in the Code of Practice. This article covers only the two core duties in the amended Act.

Whilst this article covers school aged pupils, the core duties apply to all levels of education.

New duties came into effect in September 2002 which extended the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to cover every aspect of education. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 amends the Disability Discrimination Act Part 4 to prevent discrimination against disabled people in their access to education.

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) defines disability as 'a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person's ability to perform normal day-to-day activities'.

The duties in the Act make it unlawful to discriminate, without justification, against disabled pupils and prospective pupils in all aspects of school life. The principle behind this legislation is that, wherever possible, disabled people should have the same opportunities as non-disabled people in their access to education.

• in relation to admissions
• in relation to education and associated services including:
  school trips
  the curriculum
  teaching and learning
  school sports
  the serving of school meals
• by excluding a pupil

There are two core duties in the amended Act to ensure schools do not discriminate against disabled pupils. These are:

• not to treat disabled pupils less favourably
• to take reasonable steps to avoid putting disabled pupils at a substantial disadvantage. This is known as the reasonable adjustments duty.

Less favourable treatment
The Act says that the responsible body for a school discrminates against a disabled child if:

• for a reason relating to the child's disability, it treats him less favourably than it treats, or would treat, others to whom that reason does not apply and
• it cannot show that the particular treatment is justified

For example, a school cannot refuse a child's application to be admitted to the school because of his/her disability.
In some cases, the school may be able to justify treating a child less favourably if it can show that it did so for a 'material and substantial' reason. This means the reason must relate to the child and be significant enough to justify discrimination

Reasonable adjustments duty
Responsible bodies must take reasonable steps to ensure that disabled children are not placed at a substantial disadvantage. Substantial disadvantage may include the time and effort that might need to be expended by a disabled child; the inconvenience, indignity or discomfort experienced by the child; the loss of opportunity or the diminished progress that a disabled child may make in comparison with his or her peers who are not disabled.
For example, if the school fails to make the arrangements necessary for your child to sit public exams, this may be considered discriminatory.

The DDA does not require schools to provide auxillary aids and services such as signers, interpreters or information formats such as Braille or audiotape. These are provided through the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Framework which individually assesses a pupil's special educational needs.

The DCFS have said that schools also have a duty under the DDA to make reasonable adjustments for disabled parents when, for example, they have a meeting at the school.

Under new planning duties, there is a requirement for physical adjustment to be made to premises if disabled people are at a substantial disadvantage. This requirement comes into practice in September 2005.

As with all legislation, there are many elements to this Act. It is important that, should parents feel their child has been discriminated against, they read the Code of Practice to set the duties in context. Alternatively they should speak to Disability Rights Commission (DRC) Telephone 08457 622 633 E-mail enquiry@drc-gb.org or consult the website www.drc-gb.org.
The Code of Practice can be ordered from the DRC - 'Code of Practice for Schools' including school sixth forms and 'Code of Practice Post-16' for college and university students on the telephone number quoted above.

Article last edited on Thursday 12th August 2010                          Printable Version