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Disability discrimination

29 October 2024

Information from UCU on disability equality and campaigning.

Rights

Detailed information on legislation, the social model of disability and the UNCRPD related to disability.

Legislation

Social Model of Disability

UCU follows the social model of disability which looks at the ways in which society is organised and the social and institutional barriers which restrict disabled people's opportunities. The social model sees the person first and argues that the barriers they face, in combination with their impairments, are what disables them.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) is an international human rights treaty that aims to promote, protect, and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all disabled people. This briefing provides information on the Convention and its articles.

Public sector equality duty toolkit

The public sector equality duty came into force on 5 April 2011 and is supported by specific duties. These came into force in England on 10 September 2011.

Public Sector Equality Duty - Wales

Public Sector Equality Duty - Northern Ireland

Equality duty branch checklist

Supporting members to challenge discrimination and harassment

This toolkit is designed to help you, and your UCU representatives identify that what you have experienced amounts to discrimination, how to gather relevant evidence, and the practical steps and procedures to be followed through internal processes and, if applicable, to the employment tribunal stage. 

Tackling disability discrimination at work

Disability discrimination

Ableism is discrimination in favour of non-disabled people. It is based on an assumption that the physical, cognitive and sensory differences with which disabled people live with are deficits, and it is rooted in the medical model of disability that assumes that disabled people need to be 'fixed'.  This information sheet explores everyday ableism and provides steps that can be taken to challenge it.

Guidance & briefings

Guidance and briefings for reps and disabled members.

Disability awareness

Enabling not Disabling

This briefing is designed as a guide to UCU branches and local associations on the rights of UCU's disabled members. This guide was updated in November 2015 and includes legislation from Equality Act 2010:

David's story

A disability awareness toolkit for branch equality officers.

Ableism words, actions and attitudes matter

The language we use about people and issues can have a powerful impact. Along with the Disabled Members' Standing Committee, the attached information sheet serves to assist branches, and members alike to understand how ableism impacts on disabled people's lives and provides suggestions on how to address this.

Disclosing a disability

This guide outlines some of the advantages that disclosure can trigger when related to current equality and employment law, when you are obliged to disclose a disability and when you are not, and some of the wider issues around creating a culture and a working environment where people feel able to disclose.

Disclosing a disability: UCU guidance [360kb]

UCU briefing on disability leave

Institutions should have a separate policy for disability leave, and this brief guide provides some useful definitions, guidance and links around what disability leave is and how it differs to regular sick leave.

Supporting members with equality issues

Information for all branches and caseworkers prepared by the UCU Disabled Members' Standing Committee and the Working Group for Mental Health:

Neurodiversity

Briefing for Neurodivergent members taking industrial action

This briefing provides consideration for Disabled and Neurodivergent members when taking strike action.

Neurodiversity at work

UCU represents a diverse membership of workers from different backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, sexualities and neurologies. Neurology is how the brain functions and this resource aims to support branches with tools to address neurodivergence. 

Casualisation and neurodiversity

A casualised workplace can never be truly inclusive. An education sector with unstable, insecure employment as a systemic feature will always be hostile to neurodivergent people. Explicit, transparent processes for using casual contracts and routes out of precarity support a neurodiverse workforce. We have produced these guides to help members and branches deal with such issues. We also call on employers to sign our manifesto to tackle insecure employment and support a genuinely neurodiverse workforce.

Briefing on OCD for reps

UCU has produced guidance for branches on OCD.

Reasonable adjustments

Reasonable adjustments guidance

UCU has produced guidance for members on reasonable adjustments. This was developed with the UCU disabled members' standing committee, and it provides information, examples, and resources on your right to reasonable adjustments and how to negotiate for them in your branch.  The reasonable adjustment passport is a live record of the agreed adjustments between you and your manager to support you at work due to a health condition, impairment or disability, visible or hidden, such as a mental health issue or condition:

Guide to Access to Work

The government-funded Access to Work scheme is an under-utilised resource that provides a grant for practical support if you have a disability, health or mental health condition to start or to stay in employment. 

Accessibility

'Accessibility as Standard' checklist

The committee designed this short review checklist to gather data and anecdotal information on how accessible our education institutions are. Despite legal protections, access and accessibility remain issues that impact Disabled members both individually and collectively. This checklist aims to increase accessibility in our workplaces, including within physical buildings and virtual learning environments, so that we see 'accessibility as standard'.

Shared space

This briefing looks at the issues that disabled, young and older people have in using shared space.

Disability and health

Disability and the Coronavirus

The Covid-19 pandemic presents additional challenges and barriers for UCU members with disabilities

Disabled workers returning to work: With the support of the disabled members' standing committee, UCU has produced the attached advice sheet, which focuses on equality, health, and safety and will provide reps and members with information to support disabled workers in the workplace and at home.

Long Covid briefing: We have produced this equality briefing to support and inform branches around Long Covid and protections at work for disabled people.

Mental Health at Work

This briefing is intended to assist branches in supporting members who may need mental health support and seeks to offer practical advice and guidance for branch representatives, including health and safety representatives.

HIV in the workplace

A UCU guide for challenging discrimination and supporting equality

TUC guide on sickness benefit and disability discrimination

Performance management and sickness absence for disabled workers

This briefing for branches is about sickness absence and performance management for disabled workers. It outlines the main issues facing disabled workers.

Campaigns

The current disability campaigns in which the UCU is involved are updated with resources for branches to take action in line with UCU policy.

Day of Action for Disability Equality

This annual campaign raises awareness of disability equality issues that the Disabled Members Standing Committee asks members to raise locally.

Disabled People's Manifesto Pledge 2024

A manifesto written by Deaf and Disabled People and Disabled People's Organisations (DPOs) for disabled people that demands the government address the systemic inequalities faced by disabled people.

Disabled People's Manifesto Pledge 2024 You are encouraged to read and support the 'Disabled People's Manifesto' Manifesto | DPO Forum Manifesto (disabledpeoplesmanifesto.com) which covers the following areas: 

  1. Representation and Voice
  2. Rights
  3. Independence
  4. Inclusion,

ACTION

  1. UCU supports the manifesto, which you can read here: Manifesto | DPO Forum Manifesto.
  2. Show your support by sharing the manifesto on social media using the hashtag #DisabledPeoplesManifesto, tagging the following @DisRightsUK and @InclusionLondon, and signing the pledge card [126kb].

Disability Employment Charter

UCU is a signatory to the Disability Employment Charter (www.disabilityemploymentcharter.org) and is encouraging all branches to enter into discussion with their employers to sign up for its nine principles. The Charter sets out key practical aims and objectives to address the disadvantages working Disabled people encounter and has been developed by Disabled people, Disabled People's Organisations (DPOs), charities and trade unions.

Representation & advocacy

This section guides who to contact within UCU for member advice and support (regional and local) and includes an overview of the equality structures.

In the event members require advice and support at the local level, please get in touch with your branch reps. Use the contact finder here UCU - Key UCU contacts

Structures and decision-making: an overview of UCU's structures:

Head of Equality and Policy

Equality Support Official

Last updated: 4 December 2024