Disability discrimination

Boyle v SCA Packaging Ltd, Equality and Human Rights Commission intervening [2009] UKHL; TLR 6 July; SJ 7 July p5

In determining whether a person was disabled within the meaning of the Disability Discrimination Act 1975 by reason of having an impairment which, although capable of being controlled by measures taken to treat it, would be likely to have substantial adverse effects but for those measures, the word ‘likely’ did not mean ‘probable’ but ‘could well happened’. It followed that a woman whose propensity to develop vocal nodules was controlled by a strict management regime based on avoiding raising her voice, but which could well return and cause substantial adverse effects if the regime was not followed, was disabled for the purposes of the 1975 Act. Accordingly, her former employers, who had placed her in a noisier work environment despite her claim that it would require her to speak louder and so jeopardise her voice management regime, had to answer her claim that they had failed to make reasonable adjustments for her disability. Accordingly, the claimant was disabled within the meaning of the Act.