UK disability discrimination law and stammering / stuttering
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
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
The Court of Appeal held that the House of Lords decision in LB Lewisham v Malcolm applies to education. In this case, a school’s exclusion of a child with ADHD was not disability-related discrimination because the school would have excluded a non-disabled child who behaved in the same way. The Court of Appeal reasoning would … Read more
There was held to be a failure to make reasonable adjustments for a professional exam. This was so even though the claimant had not identified the particular adjustment at the time of the exam. However a potentially reasonable adjustment, or at least its broad nature, should be identified by the time of the hearing. It … Read more