Liam O’Dell: Eight years on, the Equality Act 2010 is still failing to protect deaf people

Posted on August 8, 2018 by


If you want to know whether deaf people and other minority groups in the UK are still facing discrimination in today’s society, then you only need to look at how many times the 2010 Equality Act has stopped injustice in its tracks to get your answer.

Communication support not being provided at university graduations, poor subtitling in the entertainment industry and a continuing problem with disabled people getting into employment show not only a continuous disregard for the rights of disabled people, but also that this law fails to pack a punch. Deaf people may be bringing this Act when being discriminated against, but something seems to suggest that the people at fault aren’t really paying attention

The Equality Act 2010 is failing to challenge the underlying attitudes in our society, and it’s something which has been noticed by the UK’s Women and Equalities Committee. Claiming that they’ve heard that the enforcement of the legislation “isn’t working”, they’ve now announced the launch of a new inquiry into the Act.

“We want to look at whether the Equality Act creates an unfair burden on individual people to enforce their right not to be discriminated against,” said committee chair, Maria Miller MP. “How easy is it for people to understand and enforce their rights? How effective is enforcement action?”

“Enforcement action” is an interesting thing to consider when most of the time, the main course of action in a case of disability discrimination is to sound the alarm on social media. Petitions are launched, posts go viral and the institution or organisation gets a slap on the wrist before likely bowing down to public pressure. If legal action is taken, it’s hardly ever mentioned.

Giving credit where it’s due, the Equality Act helps to establish what constitutes disability discrimination and is responsible for the term ‘reasonable adjustments’ becoming quite an often-cited phrase for deaf people in the fight for inclusion and accessibility.

The downside? The lengthy legal process – one which is probably to blame for social media posts being the main course of action for deaf and disabled people. It’s one thing giving the Equality Act more legislative power, but the claims process has to be more streamlined if it is to bring about change.

After all, the sign of positive legislation is when it brings about change, and when it comes to the discrimination of deaf people, there’s an underlying attitude which needs to be deconstructed.

It should no longer be seen as an inconvenience for deaf people to want adjustments or communication support in order to access work, education or a particular service, and disability rights cannot be seen as a legal burden.

Once these perceptions and misconceptions have been broken down, with the aid of improved legislation, deaf people and other minority groups can finally get closer to achieving full equality.

The consultation for the Women and Equalities Committee’s inquiry is still ongoing, and written submissions can be made online.

Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and blogger from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and makes the occasional video about deaf awareness on his YouTube channel. He can also be found talking about disability, politics, theatre, books and music on his Twitter, or on his blog, The Life of a Thinker.

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