Disability and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)

This section of the website provides information on the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and the Disabilty Equality Duty (DED).

News: Disabled pupils — helping schools to prepare for the 2011 School Census

Schools are invited to help to test a draft version of a new tool to help them identify learners who are disabled under the DDA. Schools may find this particularly useful given the imminent inclusion of two questions on disability in the January 2011 School Census.

More information

Guidance: Implementing the Disability and Discrimination Act in schools and Early Years settings

The essential guide to the duties set out in the DDA is the CD-ROM publication, Implementing the Disability Discrimination Act in schools and Early Years settings. It is designed to help schools and LAs fulfil their obligations to improve access and prevent discrimination.

Read an outline of the publication and information about ordering it.

The DCSF and National Strategies have produced Disability Equality Schemes (DES) and schools: A duty under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005. This is a step-by-step guide for schools, outlining the actions they need to take to comply with the DDA. The National Strategies have also produced a self-evaluation resource to help schools evaluate the effectiveness of their disability equality schemes.

The Disability Discrimination Act

The duties of schools under Part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (as amended by the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001) are:

not to treat disabled pupils 'less favourably'
to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled pupils are not at a substantial disadvantage compared to their peers
to draw up plans to show how, over time, they will increase access to education for disabled pupils
to comply with the DED.

Read a summary of schools' duties under disability discrimination law. Similar duties apply to LAs.

Schools' duties under disability discrimination law

The Disability Equality Duty

The Disability Equality Duty (DED) forms Part 5A of the DDA 1995, inserted by the DDA 2005. It places a general duty on schools to have regard to the need to:

promote equality of opportunity between disabled people and other people
eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the DDA 1995 (as amended)
eliminate harassment of disabled people that is related to their disability
promote positive attitudes towards disabled people
encourage participation by disabled people in public life
take steps to meet disabled people's needs, even if this requires more favourable treatment.

Additionally, schools also have a specific duty to develop, implement and publish in consultation with disabled pupils, staff and parents/carers a disability equality scheme. Schemes should be published in a school's prospectus or on its website and hard copies should be freely available in reception areas. Schemes should be reviewed annually and replaced every three years.

The first primary schools', special schools' and pupil referral units' schemes should have been in place by 3 December 2007. The first secondary schools schemes should have been in place by 4 December 2006. The LA has responsibility for developing a pupil referral unit's scheme.

Effectively, the general duty sets out what schools have to do and the specific duty sets out how they are going to do it.

How the DDA and the DED fit together.

The actions required by schools under the Disability Discrimination Act will also help schools in developing their anti-bullying policy.

Guidance: Bullying of disabled children and young people.

Definition of disability

The DDA definition of disability is broad and includes a wide range of impairments including learning disabilities, dyslexia, diabetes, HIV and epilepsy, where the effect of the impairment on the pupil's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activity is adverse, substantial and long-term.