What is Disability Discrimination?
Disability Ground
If someone treats you less favourably because you have a disability and someone else has a different disability or does not have a disability.
‘Disability’ can mean many different conditions: physical, intellectual, learning, cognitive, emotional or medical.
The definition includes, for instance, depression, epilepsy, claustrophobia and agoraphobia, alcoholism, facial scarring, ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), HIV infection, diabetes and dyslexia. It also covers many other impairments or diseases that can affect how your body looks or functions.
How do you know if you have experienced discrimination?
Discrimination is when someone treats you worse or ‘less favourably’ than another person is, has been, or would be treated, in a similar situation, because you fall under the ‘protected grounds’.
You can experience discrimination in four different ways:
- directly
- indirectly
- by imputation
- by association
Who can you complain to?
Complaints under the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts are made to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
The WRC deals with claims related to employment and to services or goods, including education, housing, membership clubs and certain cases relating to pubs.
Note that there are very strict timeframes to complain.
Watch our video to see some examples of discrimination, learn about your rights and find out how to make a complaint.
Watch our video with audio description