Disability: policy context

The Human Rights Act 1998 prohibits discrimination, and widens the extent to which a disabled person can seek redress through the law. However, the most important piece of legislation relating to people with disabilities is the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA).  This provided one definition of disability (see below), as well as measures to prevent discrimination on the grounds of disability in the areas of employment, access to goods, facilities and services. The Act was extended to school, further and higher education through the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act, 2001. In Scotland the main impact of this has been on Further and Higher Education. New legislation covering education in schools was introduced in November 2005 with the implementation of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004. This is aimed at providing support for children in Scotland with additional needs, and the Act gives new rights to parents and young people, and places new duties on education authorities, health boards and other public agencies. Progress resulting from the above legislation is monitored by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) which was established in 2000.

Anti-discriminatory legislation has also now been extended by means of the 2005 Disability Discrimination Act. Apart from broadening the areas and services now covered by legislation (e.g. transport), and extending the categories of disabled people protected by law (e.g. to include people affected by some cancers, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis), the Act also introduced the Disability Equality Duty (DED) which is aimed at promoting disability equality across the public sector. Further details are available from the DED pages of the Disability Rights Commission website.

Other recent legislation which is likely to impact on many adult disabled people is the Welfare Reform Bill, published in July 2006. A summary of the main proposals of the Bill is available from the relevant page of the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) website.

In policy terms, the two most important definitions of disability are those provided by the above Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) and International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The former defines disability as 'a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on his/her ability to carry out normal day to day activities': it therefore reflects the individual model of disability as the emphasis is on impairment and ‘normal’ functioning.  It does not consider contextual factors such as physical or social barriers. The ICF definition represents a more rounded view of disability due to its recognition of impairment and environmental factors; it defines disability as 'an umbrella term of impairments, activity limitations or participation restrictions'.