Disability and discrimination

Discrimination occurs when a person or organisation treats a disabled person less favourably than they would treat others. This discrimination can affect issues such as education, employment, income and health.

For example:

1. Disabled people of working age face considerable disadvantage compared to people without disability. On average their incomes are about 20 per cent lower than the incomes of non-disabled individuals and their employment rates are half the size
2. International evidence shows that people with learning difficulties or long term mental health problems on average die 5-10 years younger than other people, often from preventable illnesses
3. 15% of deaf or hard of hearing people say they avoid going to their GP because of communication problems