Legislation and Guidance
The Equality Act (2010)
The Equality Act (2010) protects individuals against direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation, on the basis of 9 protected characteristics, including Disability:
- Age (excluding under-18s)
- Gender reassignment (including people who have proposed, started or completed a process to change their sex but who are not under medical supervision)
- Marriage/civil partnership (but it does not protect against those who are not married or in a civil partnership)
- Pregnancy and maternity (defined as all stages of pregnancy and the 26 week period following the birth of a child)
- Race (including caste, nationality, ethnicity, skin colour)
- Religion or belief (also includes atheism or agnosticism)
- Sexual orientation
The Equality Act (2010), including the public sector equality duty, replaces all previous equalities legislation such as the Race Relations Act, Disability Discrimination Act and Sex Discrimination Act.
What does the Equality Act say about disability and disabled students in higher education?
A higher education institution must not discriminate against, harrass or victimise:
- prospective students
- students at the institution
- in some limited circumstances former students
- disabled people who are not students at the institution but who hold or have applied for qualifications conferred by the institution
What is discrimination arising from disability?
Discrimination arising from disability occurs when you treat a disabled student unfavourably because of something connected with their disability and cannot justify such treatment.
Discrimination arising from disability is different from direct discrimination. Direct discrimination occurs because of the protected characteristic of disability. For discrimination arising from disability, the question is whether the disabled student has been treated unfavourably because of something connected with their disability.
Discrimination arising from disability is also different from indirect discrimination. There is no need to show that other people have been affected alongside the individual disabled student or for the disabled student to compare themselves with anyone else.
Discrimination arising from disability will occur if the following three conditions are met:
- the institution treats a disabled student unfavourably, that is putting them at a disadvantage, even if this was not the intention, and
- this treatment is because of something connected with the disabled student’s disability (which could be the result, effect or outcome of that disability) such as an inability to walk unaided or disability-related behaviour, and
- the institution is unable to justify the treatment by showing that it is ‘a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’.
Further information on the Equality Act
Definition of Disability under the Equality Act: https://www.gov.uk/definition-of-disability-under-equality-act-2010
Guidance for Students on the Equality Act (2010): What equality law means for you as a student in further or higher education
Equality Act Technical Guidance: Equality Act 2010 technical guidance on further and higher education