Disability Discrimination - Reasonable Adjustments

Section 4A(3) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 provides that an employer is exempted from the duty to make reasonable adjustments if he did not know, and could not reasonably be expected to know, that someone is likely to be placed at a substantial disadvantage by a disability (my paraphrase). This defence is often used by prospective employers defending allegations of failure to make reasonable adjustments when (not) offering a job.

In Eastern & Coastal Kent PCT v Grey, the EAT has held that this requires each, not merely one, of the following four limbs to be satisfied, namely that:-

• does not know that the disabled person has a disability
• does not know that the disabled person is likely to be at a substantial disadvantage compared with persons who are not disabled;
• could not reasonably be expected to know that the disabled person had a disability; and
• could not reasonably be expected to know that the disabled person is likely to be placed at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who are not disabled.