UK disability discrimination law and stammering / stuttering
This tragic case involved a physics student with depression and social anxiety disorder. The university continued to seek to use oral interviews to assess her, even though she failed to attend most of them. This continued after the university knew she had a mental health problem connected to the interviews. She committed suicide in her … Read more
Equality Act claims by students against professional “qualifications bodies” normally go to the employment tribunal, but a university is excluded from being a qualifications body. The Court of Appeal held that a student’s claim against the University of Law, even in respect of a professional solicitors exam, therefore had to go to a county court … Read more
A child with non-verbal autism was provided with no specialist assistance in at least her first two years at primary school, apart from what her parents paid for. The ECtHR in Strasbourg held there was a failure to make reasonable accommodation, in breach of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Italian … Read more
Regulations say that a tendency to physical abuse cannot be a disability under Equality Act 2010. It had therefore been held that an autistic child with a tendency to lash out could not claim under the EqA when he was excluded from school. However the Upper Tribunal held this regulation is incompatible with Article 14 … Read more
A university in Turkey had not made adjustments to a building to make it accessible for a paraplegic student. The Human Rights court in Strasbourg held this was discrimination contrary to Article 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights. It said Article 14 includes an obligation to make reasonable adjustments (at least in education, … Read more
The ECtHR confirmed that Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights should be read in the light of the obligation to make reasonable accommodation. Also a specialist music college offering higher education fell within Article 14. A blind applicant had been rejected by the college with no attempt to consider reasonable adjustments, so … Read more
A grammar school pupil was claiming reasonable adjustments for dyslexia and visual stress. In a selective high-performing school she performed around average in recent mock exams, without extra time. The Upper Tribunal held that the lower tribunal should not have concluded from this that she had no disability. Rather, the comparison should be between what … Read more
The court re-interpreted the Equality Act to comply with EU law, so that a student discriminated against by her work placement provider was not left without a claim. She was entitled to claim against the provider in an employment tribunal. Her right to do this should be excluded only so far as the EqA provisions … Read more
The Court of Appeal upheld a decision that sufficient reasonable adjustments had been made for a student with multiple sclerosis taking a professional law exam. The issue of whether the time limit for the exam was a competence standard and therefore not subject to the reasonable adjustment duty did not have to be decided. Court … Read more
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 2010. A medical student in the United States was granted a preliminary injunction allowing him to use a text-to-speech device in a medical exam, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). As at mid-May 2010 the decision was being appealed. Podcast on stuttertalk.com (Episode 200) … Read more