Disability discrimination - failure to make reasonable adjustments

The EAT has held, in Fareham College v Walters, that a decision to dismiss can be an unlawful act of disability discrimination by reason of being a failure to make reasonable adjustments. It therefore mitigates the effect of Lewisham v Malcolm. The House of Lords' decision in the latter case, made in June last year, had made disability-related discrimination much more difficult for claimants to establish.

The EAT held that if, at the point at which the employer was considering dismissing the employee, there was a reasonable adjustment which would have avoided the dismissal - for example, allowing the employee to move to another position - the dismissal itself will be an unlawful act of disability discrimination by reason of the failure to make reasonable adjustments.

The full decision can be read here.