Wow! Okay! That is quite the question. Like Mental Health Awareness, definitely another contentious issue.

Legally, under the Equality Act 2010, you are considered disabled if you have a “physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.” Substantial is more than minor or trivial, and long term is 12 months or more including recurring, fluctuating, and progressive conditions.

The Office for Disability Issues, has 60 pages of guidance on this matter. Would you care to make a wager on how many of your colleagues or management team have actually read them?

The definition is pretty all-encompassing. Were we not already familiar with it, we might simply assume that, somewhere, there existed a list of conditions classed as “disabled”.

Most people, when they think of the word disabled, have a very clear picture in their mind of what they consider that to mean. Wheelchairs are of course the universal symbol of disability. The moment you see someone in a wheelchair, their condition is immediately understandable, and everybody is familiar with the white on blue pictogram which alerts us to specific accessibility guidelines.

Crutches and walking sticks also trigger a sense of recognition. Guide dogs, dark glasses, and white canes immediately inform us that their user is blind. Hearing aids and cochlear implants alert us to the person’s hearing impairment.

So far, so good. Everybody understands what constitutes a disability. To a degree.

There is one aspect that defines our approach to any protected characteristic.

Can you see it? Because, if you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist.

Do you agree with that statement? Of course not. Nobody in their right mind would agree with that. Yet, even if only sub-consciously, your employer and colleagues are guilty of thinking this way.

There are many, non-visible, impairments which can be classified as disabilities. Organ specific conditions such as asthma. Diabetes and other auto-immune disorders. Developmental and learning difficulties, and mental illness can all be considered impairments sufficient to be classed as disabilities. Depending on their impact on normal daily activities.

People with non-visible disabilities are ignored, and even mocked. Their conditions dismissed as excuses in ways that wouldn’t happen to those with, shall we dare to say, more socially acceptable, visible disabilities. The phrase, “You’re not disabled” bandied about by those who have no clue what the legislation actually says.

In order to be considered for disability status, an impairment is assessed as it would be if it wasn’t receiving any form of medical treatment.

Or in the words of the ODI guidelines, “…the impairment is to be treated as having a substantial adverse effect if, but for the treatment or correction, the impairment is likely to have that effect.”

(Well, that’s that cleared right up.)

So, when you observe somebody that you know to have an impairment, consider that without medical oversight, prescribed medication, or even medically recommended dietary plans, that person could well end up incapacitated, or dead.

Whether visibly disabled, or non-visibly disabled, no person or persons may receive less favourable treatment or harassment because of their disability.

Scope, a national UK charity, and the UK Government’s own statistics indicate that being disabled in the modern world, has serious issues.

In 2021, disabled people are far more likely to be unemployed with around 46% of working age disabled people in employment compared to 76% of non-disabled. Disabled people are 3 times as likely not to hold any qualifications. Households with disabled members are more likely to be living at, or below the poverty line, and disabilities can carry additional related costs that push disabled families further into poverty. The disabled are also more likely to be victims of crime.

Whether someone has a visible or non-visible disability, it is a safe bet that their employer and colleagues consider them an impediment. Colleagues can be uncomprehending, and the employer is seeking to avoid having to make reasonable adjustments, in order to accommodate their needs.

(“Reasonable adjustments” is a somewhat open-ended term that stops short of tearing down and rebuilding an entire office block. Employers have to be seen to be trying. Even if it doesn’t work, or they don’t try very hard.)

So, how do these attitudes manifest themselves?

Lone worker with an auto-immune disorder? Forget about a works phone. Absence arising from a disability? Guess who’s fired? In a wheelchair? Your employer will hold workshops somewhere without wheelchair access, then fire you for losing your temper.

Unable to attend redeployment interviews because of a disability? Thank you very much, your position is now deleted. Hip problems and struggling to walk? Guess what you’re going to be doing more of?

If you’re off long-term sick, there is also a chance that you will be dismissed in your absence, and not find out until your pay stops because the employer has the wrong contact details. (Yes, that has actually happened in case you were wondering.)

Oh dear.  

The fact of the matter is, if you are the victim of any impairment that can be feasibly defined as a disability, you will need to look up the term “Constructive Dismissal”. Because it’s heading your way.

ALL HAIL THE SHAREHOLDER!