Author: Helen Duffy A former police sergeant is suing Kent Police under the Disability Discrimination Act (“DDA”).  She suffers from a voice disorder, which results in her generally only being able to speak in a whisper.  She wanted to become a dog handler but experienced problems because she could not shout controls to the animals.  She claims that the force did not give her the opportunity to carry out the dog training.  She has further claimed that she felt discriminated against after being asked to attend a meeting with the assistant chief constable after she left. When an employee suffers from a ‘disability’ under the DDA, an employer is obliged to make any ‘reasonable’ adjustments in order to assist that person in their employment.  However, there is a limit to what is ‘reasonable’. It seems in this case that there is little that can be done if the employee’s disability actually prevents her from being able to do her job.  Perhaps the dogs could be communicated to through whistle commands, but it would certainly go beyond reasonableness to expect the police force to re-train all of its dogs to respond to whistle, rather than shout commands, simply to cater for one officer’s disability. Employers are (and indeed should be) expected to assist employees with disabilities in any way that is reasonable, but there is a limit to what is expected of an employer. The Tribunal Judge made his opinion clear in his comment that, “The Disability Discrimination Act is not a charter to blame someone for everything that happens to them in life”

Read more from the original source:
When a “reasonable” adjustment is “unreasonable”

Andria Bolton

Local Solicitors UK | Compensation UK

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