RNID: For deaf and hard of hearing people.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a disabled person by treating them less favourably than anyone else for a reason connected to their disability (unless this can be justified), or by failing to make reasonable adjustments.

The employment part of the DDA covers:

  • recruiting and retaining staff
  • access to training
  • dismissal or redundancy
  • harassment and reasonable adjustments
  • work pension schemes and insurance benefits for employees.

There is more information in our factsheet, Discrimination and Employment - your rights under the DDA.

Workplace adjustments

Your employer should consider whether there are changes that they could make at work so you can carry out your job. These are known as 'reasonable adjustments'.

Examples of reasonable adjustments include:

  • altering your hours of working or training
  • allowing part time working, or different working hours (maybe to avoid the need to travel in the rush hour
  • communication support, for example, a sign language interpreter or lipspeaker
  • equipment, for example an amplified telephone or textphone
  • time off for medical appointments.

Sometimes adjustments are needed for a limited period of time only and are not always required permanently.
If you are a member of a union your representative can advise you on your rights and support you at any meetings