The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) protects disabled people. The DDA defines a person as disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long term (ie has lasted or is expected to last at least 12 months) and adverse effect on the person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
The list below contains examples of the types of impairment:
- Physical impairment, such as difficulty using your arms or mobility issues which means using a wheelchair or crutches.
- Sensory impairment, such as being blind/having a serious visual impairment or being deaf/having a serious hearing impairment.
- Mental health condition, such as depression or schizophrenia.
- Learning disability such as dyslexia or cognitive impairment such as autism.
- Long-standing illness or health condition such as cancer, HIV, diabetes, chronic heart disease, or epilepsy.
- Other, such as disfigurement.