Disability rights are set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD, 2006). Its purpose is: ‘to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity’ (UNCRPD, 2006).
In the UK disability rights are incorporated as one of nine protected groups in the Equality Act (2010). Whilst equality of opportunity is often achieved by equality of treatment, this is ‘insufficient to afford real equality for people with disability and may even militate against it’. (House of Lords Select Committee on the Equality Act and Disability, 2016). Different treatment is required for persons with disability who require reasonable adjustments to reduce disadvantage, which is a cornerstone of the Act .
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldselect/ldeqact/117/117.pdf
In practice, the Equality Act has not worked well for people with disability with widespread difficulties in securing reasonable adjustments in the UK. As a result persons with disability are routinely denied their human rights in multiple aspects of daily life. Health professionals have additional responsibilities for raising awareness of human rights, dignity, autonomy and needs of persons with disabilities under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Yet, disability discrimination is common in the NHS (Tyerman, 2023). The reported examples suggest a high risk of health professionals, managers and course tutors inadvertently failing to fulfil their legal obligations as a result of lack of awareness of disability rights and requirements. (See downloads below).
From 01/09/23 updated Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC, 2023) strengthen Standards of Proficiency in terms of equality, diversity and inclusion, including a specific requirement to ‘understand the duty to make reasonable adjustments in practice and be able to make and support reasonable adjustments in theirs and others’ practice’.
https://www.hcpc-uk.org/standards/standards-of-conduct-performance-and-ethics/
The site image illustrates the need for equity of opportunity not just equality of treatment for persons with disability (image from MN Pollution Control Agency (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)i
Equality:
Whilst equality of opportunity is often achieved by equality of treatment, this is ‘insufficient to afford real equality for people with disability and may even militate against it’. (Select Committee on Equality Act and Disability, 2016). Persons with disability commonly require adjustments to reduce disadvantage arising from their disability. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldselect/ldeqact/117/117.pdf
Equity:
Whereas 'Equality' provides the same resources and opportunities to everyone, 'Equity' provides resources and opportunities needed in individual circumstances to reach equal outcome (Equity vs. Equality: What’s the Difference? | Online Public Health (gwu.edu).
Download 1 below - this is a pre-publication version of the following article: Tyerman A (2023). The WHO call for urgent action to advance health equity, set in the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Equality Act. Special Issue on Human Rights. Clinical Psychology Forum, 368 , 33-42. Leicester: British Psychological Society.
If you work regularly with persons with disabilities you are encouraged to read the above article. However the key issues are also summarised in Disability Discrimination Content and Concerns (see downloads below). The concerns reported in 2023 were updated and broadened in a presentation in Sussex in October 2024 - see download 3 below.
Other key references and links are included in both of the above.