The Codes of Practice for the Act recommends that:

• organisations and public bodies produce an Access Strategy as to how they will fulfil their duties under the Equality Act and,

• organisations providing services to the public undertake Access Audits as a tool to prevent unlawful discrimination under the Act.

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Protected characteristics

​The EA2010 is based on the concept of ‘protected characteristics’. These are characteristics or features, such as disability, age, gender, religion and race for which a person may not be discriminated against.

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For disability this includes any mental or physical impairment, including mobility and sensory impairments, psychiatric illnesses and severe disfigurement, past disabilities and certain condition such as cancer and HIV.

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Prohibited Conduct

The act defines ‘Prohibited Conduct’ relating to all the protected characteristics, followed by specific requirements in areas such as service provision, education and employment. There are additional duties for public bodies.

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Direct Discrimination: A person is protected from being directly discriminated against because they possess, are believed to possess or are associated with a person with a protected characteristic.

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Generally, Direct Discrimination occurs when a person is treated less favourably because of a protected characteristic. However, for disability, the definition is for a person being treated unfavourably due to their disability (removing the requirement for a ‘comparator’ to prove discrimination).

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Indirect Discrimination: This occurs where Provisions, Criteria or Practices (PCP) are globally applied, resulting in a person with a protected characteristic being put at a disadvantage.

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The PCP must actually cause (or would cause) persons who share a characteristic to be placed at a disadvantage compared to others to whom the PCP applies.

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Duty to make Reasonable Adjustments (Disability Only)

The duty to make reasonable adjustments to avoid indirect discrimination requires that if a:

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• Provisions, Criteria or Practices,

• Physical feature (of the built environment),

• Lack of auxiliary aid (or service),

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puts a disabled person at a ‘substantial disadvantage’ compared to a person who is not disabled, then reasonable steps should be made to avoid the disadvantage.

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For disability only, this means taking steps to ensure that a disabling environmental feature is removed, altered or avoided.

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An access audit critically appraises an environment and provides long term and short solutions to prevent discrimination and potential litigation.

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It does not necessarily mean that extensive physical alterations will be required. Often staff training and procedural or organisational adjustments can effectively eliminate discrimination at virtually no additional cost to the organisation.

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Discrimination arising from disability: A disabled person must not be treated unfavourably for a reason arising as a consequence of their disability.

Harassment: In relation to a protected characteristic.

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Victimisation: Due to undertaking a protected act such as complaining about discrimination.

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Combined Discrimination: Due to dual protected characteristics e.g. disability and being transgender.

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Duties of Public Bodies

Public bodies such as universities, health providers, local government and councils have additional duties under the Act to eliminate discrimination and advance equality in all decisions and policies.

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Tools such as Access Strategies, Access Plans and Equality Impact Assessments are essential for organisations to fulfil and document that they are fulfilling their duties under the Act.