Disability Discrimination Act

This information applies to people in the UK only. If you live outside the UK, then more information about epilepsy and employment where you are will be available from your local epilepsy organisation.

In the UK, people with epilepsy, or a history of epilepsy, are covered by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA).

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) is a law that makes it illegal to discriminate against disabled people. Under the DDA discrimination can happen when:

• a disabled person is treated less favourably than someone else; and
• the treatment is for a reason relating to the person's disability; and
• this treatment cannot be justified.

This means that employers must not treat someone with a disability less favourably than another person, unless they can justify their reasons for doing so. One reason might be to avoid risks to the person’s safety.

You are covered by the DDA even if your seizures are fully controlled by medication or if you have a history of epilepsy, but no longer have seizures or take medication.

The armed forces are not currently covered by the DDA. However, all other areas of employment are.

In the UK, employers must not discriminate unfairly in job advertisements, interviews or when offering a job. For example, an employer could be considered to be discriminating if they insist that you have a driving licence for a job which is mostly office based, when driving is not essential to be able to do the job well.

Once you are in employment, the DDA covers work duties and opportunities for training and promotion. For example, your employers must not use your epilepsy as an excuse not to offer you a promotion, if you have all the necessary skills and experience to be promoted.

Last updated 2 May 2007