NB This is the second page of the online version of the SDT Guidance Note Disability Equality Duty: Implications and Opportunities for ICT provision in Higher Education Institutions and Colleges of Further Education, published in April 2006.

2: The Legislation

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995

Under the DDA 1995, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Colleges are obliged to take reasonable steps to avoid discriminating against disabled people, under Parts II (Employment), III (Goods and Services) and, more recently, Part IV (Education).

These areas of the Act make no direct reference to ICT, but accompanying Codes of Practice strongly indicate that, if disabled people encounter discrimination resulting from accessibility problems present in ICT provided by an educational institution, this is likely to be unlawful under the Act.

The Disability Discrimination Act 2005

The DDA 2005 came into effect on 5th December 2005. It amends the DDA 1995 by placing a General Duty on all public authorities, including HEIs/Colleges, to have "due regard" to the need to (Chapter 2, paragraph 2.2):

Promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons;
Eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Act;
Eliminate harassment of disabled people that is related to their disability;
Promote positive attitudes towards disabled people;
Encourage participation by disabled persons in public life; and
Take steps to take account of disabled persons' disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons.

The phrase "due regard" is regularly used in the Code, and in this report. "Due regard" is defined in the Code (paras 2.33-2.43) as consideration of:

proportionality - the impact on disabled people of positive changes to a particular decision or function, and
relevance - the relevance of disability equality to a particular decision or function.

The concept of "impact assessment", discussed later, helps institutions ensure that due regard is paid to disability equality.

In addition to this General Duty, some named public authorities, including HEIs/Colleges, are subject to Specific Duties. The main thrust of the specific duty regulations is that, by 4th December 2006, all HEIs/Colleges must have produced and published a Disability Equality Scheme. They must also follow the Scheme - by carrying out the actions specified, and evaluating the success of the scheme over time.

In more detail, the Scheme:

Identifies how disabled people were involved in production of the Scheme;
Describes how the institution/college will assess impact of decisions and functions with respect to disabled people;
Describes how information relating to employment and delivery of education and functions will be collected and used; and
Describes how the effectiveness of the actions presented in the Scheme will be evaluated.

The Scheme and reports on evaluating an institution's/college's effectiveness in following the actions set out in the Scheme must be published in a publicly accessible place - and, of course, should be published in accessible formats.

The Code of Practice also identifies the need for prioritisation of steps to ensure that those with the greatest positive impact on disabled people are addressed first.

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