Since 1st September 2003, colleges of Further & Higher Education have been obliged by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) to supply auxiliary aids and services to disabled students. John Savva is profoundly deaf. He started his undergraduate degree course in Sept 2005 with the help of a Disabled Students Allowance. He was assessed as [...]
I was reading Disability Rights in Europe: from theory to practice, and came across a reference to the cases of Skjoldager v Sweden (( (1995) 22504/93 )) and Malone v UK (( (1996) 25290/94) )) at the European Court of Human Rights (“the ECtHR”). Skjoldager v Sweden The applicant, a psychologist, visited a care home [...]
A Deaf couple was refused as blood donors, by the National Blood Service, on the basis that the service could not guarantee that they would understand the questions asked. The Deaf couple had volunteered to find an interpreter, which caused the NBS to respond: “For their own safety, we ask volunteers some very intimate questions [...]
On the 1 October 2004, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 come into force. Amongst other provisions, it provides for non-discrimination in respect of barristers. The relevant sections are below, for information.
In short, the following judgement holds that Barristers’ Chambers are not covered by the Disability Discrimination Act for the purposes of securing a pupillage or being accepted by chambers. Thus Deaf and disabled (trainee) barristers have no legal protection against Chambers, and can be discriminated against. 1 Pump Court Chambers v Horton [2003] EWCA Civ [...]
Following the Iberia fiasco, over Deaf people being allowed to board a plane by themselves, and secondly without advance warning; Iberia issued the following Press Release: Press release Last week the media ran several features informing of an incident on an aircraft with a group of young people with hearing problems and some reports describe [...]
There has been recent publicity about a group of 23 Deaf Mary Hare Grammar School students being told to leave their plane because they did not have a “carer” with them. What exactly is the legal position here? What happened? The group of 23 were due to go on holiday to the Canary Islands on [...]
Last week a White Paper was published: Fairness for All: A New Commission for Equality and Human Rights by the DTI. It is proposed that a single body is established combining the existing Commissions: Disability Rights Commission, Commission for Racial Equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission; in addition to providing support for the first time, [...]