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Ridout v TC Group

[1998] IRLR 628

The applicant disclosed she had photo-sensitive epilepsy controlled by medication. Her claim failed because the employers could not be expected to know that the lighting arrangements at the interview would disadvantage her.

The applicant had a very rare form of epilepsy and the tribunal was entitled to conclude that no reasonable employer could be expected to know, without being told in terms by the applicant, that the arrangements which were made for the interview might disadvantage her.

The EAT said: "It would be unsatisfactory to expect a disabled person to have to go into a great long explanation as to the effects that their disablement had on them merely to cause the employer to make adjustments, which he probably should have made in the first place. On the other hand, a balance must be struck. It is equally undesirable that an employer should be required to ask a number of questions about a person."

Comment: this case was cited but distinguished in Y v Calderdale Council, a case on stammering.

Employment: Reasonable adjustments

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