The Equality Act coming into force on the 1st October replaces the Disability Discrimination Act and includes a definition of a disabled person, who is therefore protected from discrimination.  This definition is, however, slightly different from that used in the Disability Discrimination Act.

Unlike the DDA, the Equality Act dose not require a disabled person to demonstrate that their impairment, if it is adversely affecting normal life, involves a set list of capacities, such as mobility, speech or the ability to understand.  Essentially, the Equality Act makes it easier for a person to show that they are disabled and are therefore protected from disability discrimination.

Under the Equality Act, a person is disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities, which would include things like using a telephone, reading a book or using public transport.

New statutory guidance needs to be introduced to help in applying the definition of disability and there is a paucity of clarity in the Act, which is hugely concerning.  The Government has only just (last week) laid regulations (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2128/part/2/made) before Parliament stating that addiction to alcohol, nicotine or any other substance is to be treated as "not amounting to an impairment for the purposes of the Act, unless the addiction was originally the result of the administration of medically prescribed drugs or other medical treatment".