Disability
The Disability Unit in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister is responsible for developing anti-discrimination policy on disability and preparing legislation under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Our work involves preparing policy papers, briefing Ministers and officials and preparing legislation.
Latest News
The consultation on the Removal of the Transport Exemption from Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) runs from 8 December until 13 March 2009.
Change to the Definition of Disability
From 31 October 2007 the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) is amended to extend coverage of the DDA in the following ways.
It removes the requirement in the DDA that a mental illness must be 'clinically well recognised' before it can count as an impairment for the purposes of the DDA. People with a mental illness will still need to show that their impairment has a long term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. By removing the 'clinically well-recognised' requirement, DDA coverage for people with mental illnesses is in line with coverage for all other mental and physical impairments.
People with HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis (MS) will be deemed to be covered by the DDA effectively from the point of diagnosis, rather than from the point when the condition has some adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities."
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) is a UK wide Act which gives disabled people rights in the areas of:
- employment
- access to goods, facilities and services
- buying or renting land or property.
In addition, this Act allows the Government to set minimum standards so that disabled people can use public transport.
The DDA extends to the whole of the United Kingdom. However subordinate legislation made under the powers of the DDA is made separately for Northern Ireland.
Short history of the DDA
The employment rights and first rights of access came into operation on 02 December 1996; further rights of access came into operation on 01 October 1999; and the final rights of access came into operation in October 2004.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) was amended in 2004 by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations (NI) 2004 which implemented the EU Employment Directive (Council directive 2000/78/EC). These Regulations made a number of significant changes to the employment provisions of the DDA including ending the exemption of small employers from the scope of the DDA and ending a number of occupational exclusions (e.g. the police, prison officers, barristers and partners in business partnerships) as well as outlawing harassment.
More recently there have been further amendments. Find out more about the latest changes to the Act.
