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Disability discrimination

Discrimination legislation protects the rights of disabled people in employment, education, and access to goods and services. On this page you can find articles, books and online resources offering guidance in this area of law.
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Latest Insights

Read our latest features and articles on disability discrimination and inclusion published in ICAEW's Insights hub.
Bringing disability access to all areas of business
  • Article
  • 12 Mar 2024
From his successful finance career to a host of senior roles at charities for the disabled, Gordon Richardson has always had accessibility in mind – which has led to the award of an MBE.
Menopause reasonable adjustments – a six-step guide
  • Article
  • 11 Mar 2024
Making workplace changes to support women experiencing menopause symptoms will also ensure you stay on the right side of the law.
Workforce with disabilities is “finally being taken seriously”
  • Article
  • 01 Dec 2022
To commemorate the International Day of Disabled Persons on 3 December, ICAEW gains insight from Sami Dar, co-founder of 10,000 Able Interns, a programme that unlocks opportunities for students and graduates with disabilities.
How to be a more dyslexia-friendly employer
  • Article
  • 06 Oct 2022
From nurturing existing employees to attracting new talent, there’s a strong business imperative to making sure your business is dyslexia-friendly. As we celebrate Dyslexia Awareness Week (3-9 October), experts offer tips on what that means in practice.
Employment law pitfalls and how to avoid them
  • Article
  • 16 Nov 2021
Employment law specialists from Edwin Coe outline common mistakes and complex issues that employers may grapple with and how these can be avoided with a better understanding of the legal issues.
Tackling the effects of long COVID in the workplace
  • Article
  • 10 Feb 2021
11 February 2021: Employers are increasingly having to assess employees diagnosed with ‘long COVID’ to determine if they are classed as disabled for employment law purposes and make reasonable adjustments to assist those suffering from the condition.
Diversity: rights, guidance and knowing where you stand
  • Article
  • 26 Feb 2020
Today we talk in terms of diversity, but a decade ago the language was more around equality and discrimination. The passing of the Equality Act 2010 was the game changer that informs our understanding of diversity today, but the history of equality or anti-discrimination legislation is one of gradual change.
Big Four
Big Four to tackle exclusion of disabled people in business
  • Article
  • 13 Sep 2019
Firms combine for the first time in signing up to The Valuable 500 global pledge

Legal Alert

Legal Alert is a monthly checklist from Atom Content Marketing highlighting new and pending laws, regulations, codes of practice and rulings that could have an impact on your business.
New guidance: Acas issues guidance on reasonable adjustments for mental health
  • Article
  • 01 Jun 2023
Employers will welcome new Acas guidance to help them and their employees when considering reasonable adjustments for mental health at work.
New resource: Online help with employees’ disability/long-term health conditions
  • Article
  • 01 Dec 2022
Employers and managers will welcome a new online questionnaire that gives them free, tailored advice to help support and manage staff with a disability or a long-term health condition, whether they are off work or still working.
New strategy: Government launches National Disability Strategy
  • Article
  • 01 Oct 2021
Disabled employees and their employers are checking out the details of the government’s new National Disability Strategy and associated developments and considering what changes they may need to introduce to improve the workplace for disabled workers.
New practice: Employers making redundancies as COVID-19 restrictions ease should beware inadvertent discrimination against disabled employees
  • Article
  • 01 Jun 2021
Employers considering redundancies as COVID restrictions ease should beware inadvertently discriminating either directly or indirectly against disabled employees when choosing who to let go and take care when considering whether they need to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled employees.
New law: Employers need to consider whether long COVID is a disability, or risk disability discrimination claims
  • Article
  • 01 Feb 2021
Employers with an employee diagnosed with ‘long COVID’ should assess whether that employee is legally disabled and, if they are, take care not to directly or indirectly discriminate against them, and consider whether to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to alleviate any disadvantage the employee may suffer.
Disclaimer

These articles from Atom Content Marketing are for general guidance only, for businesses in the United Kingdom governed by the laws of England. Atom Content Marketing, expert contributors and ICAEW (as distributor) disclaim all liability for any errors or omissions.

All alerts

eBooks

The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides full text access to a selection of key business and reference eBooks from leading publishers. eBooks are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support advice or contact library@icaew.com.

Exclusive Charity Law and Governance: A Practical Guide
  • eBook
  • 2017
  • PDF (694kb)
  • Cecile Gillard | Kirsty Semple
  • ICSA Publishing
A guide to the legal and regulatory framework within which both registered and unregistered charities in England and Wales operate
Exclusive Discrimination
  • eBook chapter
  • 2016
  • Ewan McIntyre
  • Pearson
These ten sections of the chapter on employment cover discrimination - the Equality Act 2010 replaced all previous discrimination legislation. Discrimination on the basis of: age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion and belief; sex; and sexual orientation is outlawed. In addition discrimination against people with criminal records, part-time workers, fixed-term workers and agency workers is also covered.
Terms of use

You are permitted to access, download, copy, or print out content from eBooks for your own research or study only, subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.

More HR eBooks

Business press

The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.
Exclusive Disability as an advantage
  • Article
  • 01 Jul 2023
  • Luisa Alemany, Freek Vermeulen
Employing people with disabilities can significantly improve an organization. The inclusion of staff with disabilities can lead to competitive advantage in at least four ways: by bringing unique skills to the company, by increasing collaboration and psychological safety, by adding to a firm’s value proposition for customers, and by boosting a firm’s reputation with talent and investors. For example, strong links have been found between autism and aptitude at tasks requiring attention to detail.
Exclusive Creating a business around employees with disabilities
  • Article
  • 01 May 2023
  • Amy Wright, Ben Wright
As the parents of two children with Downs syndrome, the authors learned that 80% of people with disabilities in the United States are unemployed. They decided to open a small coffee shop, and employed mostly people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Their business has grown into 17 owned and franchised locations across 11 states — collectively staffed by 400 people with disabilities. In this article they share their experiences on how to get the best from these team members and capitalize on all the value they provide.
Exclusive EY reaches out: The firm steps up recruitment of disabled and autistic employees
  • Article
  • 01 Jan 2018
  • Michael Cohn
The article discusses accounting firm Ernst and Young's pursuing recruitment and hiring of disabled and autistic employees. It offers information on the Neurodiversity program of the company which focuses on autistic employees. Topics discussed include other firms which hire disabled people, the company's working with the Ready to Work Business Collaborative and its history with disabled executives.
Exclusive It'll cost you...
  • Article
  • 01 Sep 2017
  • Emily Burt, Marianne Calnan, Jo Faragher
The article offers advice on legislation related to human resources (HR) compliance in Great Britain. Topics include dealing with discrimination law, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment Regulations (TUPE) related to service provision, and flexible working regulations. Also noted are employment law related to religion, shared parental leave (SPL) regulations, and the need for written records of employee discipline and grievance procedures..
Exclusive I thought about jumping in front of a bus so I didn't have to go to work
  • Article
  • 01 Jul 2015
  • Jane Simms
How can englightened HR departments treat the causes, not the potentially devastating symptoms, of workplace stress? People Management magazine looks at strategies that can help.
Exclusive It's a thin line between obese and disabled
  • Article
  • 13 Feb 2015
  • Katee Dias
Employers should be aware that if severe obesity prevents an employee carrying out their job, it can be considered a disability.
Exclusive Employers 'biased against the disabled'
  • Article
  • 01 Jul 2014
  • Grace Lewis
Experts warn of rise in unconscious discrimination - and urge employers to act.
Exclusive Employers must be mindful of their legal duties on disability
  • Article
  • 20 Nov 2013
  • Rachel Dineley
Disability is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, and under Schedule 1 cancer is to be treated as a disability.

Articles and books in the ICAEW Library collection

The collection of the ICAEW Library & Information Service includes a range of articles, books and reports on disability discrimination. Use the links below to see what we have available to request in our Library catalogue (Libcat).

To find out how you can borrow books from the Library please see our guide to borrowing books.

You can obtain copies of articles or extracts of books and reports through our document supply service.

Legislation

This is not an exhaustive list of legislation relating to equality. The ICAEW Library holds numerous print publications on discrimination law and also subscribes to electronic databases with the complete text of UK legislation. For information on accessing these resources, please contact the Library.
Disability Discrimination Act 2005
  • legislation.gov.uk
An Act to amend the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, with new provisions covering areas including public authorities, transport, parking badges, general qualifications bodies and improvements to rental accommodation.
Employment Act 2008
  • legislation.gov.uk
An Act which reformed a wide range of different provisions for UK labour law, including national minimum wage and statutory dispute resolution procedures.
Equality Act 2010
  • legislation.gov.uk
The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.
Terms of use

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided 'as is' with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

External resources - Acas guidance

Advice, guidance and practical resources on a wide variety of recruitment topics for both employers and employees, produced by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, Acas. Acas is the employment relations service for England, Scotland and Wales offering practical, independent and impartial advice to employers, employees and their representatives.
Acas guide on disability discrimination
  • Acas
Advice for employers and employees on disability discrimination at work.
Disability at work
  • Acas
Acas Disability at work hub with links to guidance related to disability discrimination, reasonable adjustments and working safely during Coronavirus.  
Reasonable adjustments
  • Acas
Acas guidance on what reasonable adjustments for disabilities are and when employers must consider them and when employers may not have to make changes.
Using protected characteristics to make decisions
  • Acas
Acas guidance on circumstances when an employer may legally made a decision based on a 'protected characteristic.'
Terms of use

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided 'as is' with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

External resources - Guidance and advice

Disability discrimination
  • Equality and Human Rights Commission
Guidance from EHRC on disability discrimination, including what is classed as a disability, types of disability discrimination and where circumstances when being treated differently due to disability is lawful.
Disability discrimination
  • Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
Factsheets, Q&As and case law on preventing disability discrimination in the workplace from CIPD. Registration required to access content.
Disability rights
  • HM Government
Government guidance on employment, education, the Equality Act 2010 and other issues for disabled people
Employing disabled people and people with health conditions
  • HM Government
Government guidance on how to attract, recruit and retain disabled people
Guidance on matters to be taken into account in determining questions relating to the definition of disability
  • HM Government
Government guidance on the Equality Act 2010, concerning the definition of disability in the act.
Progress on disability rights in the United Kingdom
  • Equality and Human Rights Commission
This report gives an update on the steps taken by the UK governments to act on recommendations from the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to improve the lives of disabled people in the UK. The Committee is an independent body that monitors the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
Recruitment and disabled people
  • HM Government
Government guidance on employers' responsibility to not exclude disabled people from applying for a job and reasonable adjustments they must make in the workplace.
Terms of use

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided 'as is' with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

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