In England, are people with an ASD considered disabled and/or vulnerable under English Law?

Hi,

This is obviously a pretty complex question so had a chat with a few people about our position. Done the best I can but if anything seems wildly wrong, that's probably down to me rather than our acutal position at the NAS! ;) 

On a purely legal level deciding if a person is disabled is handled by the Equalities Act 2010 (which replaced the Disability Discrimination Act). The act defines disability in the following way -

A person has a disability for the purposes of the Act if he or she has a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

There is a long document which aims to explain the Act in more detail which the following bullet points refer to -
http://odi.dwp.gov.uk/docs/law/ea/ea-guide-2.pdf

So the Act essentially says -

• the person must have an impairment that is either physical or mental (see paragraphs A3 to A8)
• the impairment must have adverse effects which are substantial (see section B)
• the substantial adverse effects must be long-term (see section C)
• the long-term substantial adverse effects must be effects on normal day-to-day activities (see section D)

Looking through section A5 of the guidance you can see that a wide range of possible impairments that could cause an impairment are mentioned including the following:

developmental, such as autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), dyslexia and dyspraxia

So in a legal sense a person isn't defined as disabled because of a particular condition, but because a condition has a particular effect.

To come back to your original point zone_tripper - what being disabled or being on the spectrum means people are entitled to, are they a vulnerable - this is where things become much more personal. For example you can, if you want to brace yourself, take a look at this link from the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, which includes a detailed and at times overwhelming list of how a vulnerable adult is defined -
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/47/section/59

Because of these complexities what we'd really recommend is that anyone who wants to understand their individual rights and explore the help they may be entitled to should contact our welfare rights and community care services.

Both can be contacted through our helpline and you can see details here -
http://www.autism.org.uk/welfarerights
http://www.autism.org.uk/communitycare

Okay bit of a long reply there. If people are interested in the wider understandings and questions around disability then our policy team are inclined towards the social model of disability.

This would suggest that whilst people may face limitations and impairments due to many factors, it's the way society fails to include people or take account of this that means people are disabled.

And just to horrify the team - here's a link to a description on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_model_of_disability

But again, that's probably part of the interesting debate taking place here around disability, rather than a specific legal definition.

Hope that helps a bit :)

Hi,

This is obviously a pretty complex question so had a chat with a few people about our position. Done the best I can but if anything seems wildly wrong, that's probably down to me rather than our acutal position at the NAS! ;) 

On a purely legal level deciding if a person is disabled is handled by the Equalities Act 2010 (which replaced the Disability Discrimination Act). The act defines disability in the following way -

A person has a disability for the purposes of the Act if he or she has a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

There is a long document which aims to explain the Act in more detail which the following bullet points refer to -
http://odi.dwp.gov.uk/docs/law/ea/ea-guide-2.pdf

So the Act essentially says -

• the person must have an impairment that is either physical or mental (see paragraphs A3 to A8)
• the impairment must have adverse effects which are substantial (see section B)
• the substantial adverse effects must be long-term (see section C)
• the long-term substantial adverse effects must be effects on normal day-to-day activities (see section D)

Looking through section A5 of the guidance you can see that a wide range of possible impairments that could cause an impairment are mentioned including the following:

developmental, such as autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), dyslexia and dyspraxia

So in a legal sense a person isn't defined as disabled because of a particular condition, but because a condition has a particular effect.

To come back to your original point zone_tripper - what being disabled or being on the spectrum means people are entitled to, are they a vulnerable - this is where things become much more personal. For example you can, if you want to brace yourself, take a look at this link from the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, which includes a detailed and at times overwhelming list of how a vulnerable adult is defined -
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/47/section/59

Because of these complexities what we'd really recommend is that anyone who wants to understand their individual rights and explore the help they may be entitled to should contact our welfare rights and community care services.

Both can be contacted through our helpline and you can see details here -
http://www.autism.org.uk/welfarerights
http://www.autism.org.uk/communitycare

Okay bit of a long reply there. If people are interested in the wider understandings and questions around disability then our policy team are inclined towards the social model of disability.

This would suggest that whilst people may face limitations and impairments due to many factors, it's the way society fails to include people or take account of this that means people are disabled.

And just to horrify the team - here's a link to a description on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_model_of_disability

But again, that's probably part of the interesting debate taking place here around disability, rather than a specific legal definition.

Hope that helps a bit :)