What is a Disability?
An Overview
Unless certain exceptions apply, it is unlawful to discriminate against a person on the ground of disability.
The Act both:
defines what is meant by ‘disability’, and
makes it clear that its application is not confined to behaviour in relation to a current disability, but extends to other scenarios.
The Definition of ‘Disability’
The Act defines disability as being:
a total or partial loss of a person’s bodily or mental functions or of a part of a person’s body, or
the presence in a person’s body of organisms causing or capable of causing disease or illness, or
the malfunction, malformation or disfigurement of a part of a person’s body, or
a disorder or malfunction that results in a person learning differently from a person without the disorder or malfunction, or
a disorder, illness or disease that affects a person’s thought processes, perception of reality, emotions or judgment or that results in disturbed behaviour.
Not Just a Current Disability
The Act is not confined to a current disability.
It applies to a disability that:
a person has, or
a person is thought to have (whether or not the person in fact has the disability), or
a person had in the past, or is thought to have had in the past (whether or not the person in fact had the disability), or
a person will have in the future, or that it is thought a person will have in the future (whether or not the person in fact will have the disability).
It is also important to know that, by ‘disability’ the Act is not only talking about the person’s particular disability, but extends to all types of disability that are ‘substantially the same’ as that person’s particular disability.