ComLaw has issued an updated consolidated Disability Discrimination Act 1992 containing recent amendments.

Key amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act are those that:

• make explicit that refusal to make reasonable adjustments for people with disability may also amount to discrimination
• make the defence of unjustifiable hardship available in relation to all unlawful discrimination on the ground of disability, except harassment and victimization
• clarify matters to be considered when determining unjustifiable hardship
• clarify that the onus of proving unjustifiable hardship falls on the person claiming it
• make clear that the definition of disability includes genetic predisposition to a disability and behaviour that is a symptom or manifestation of a disability
• replace the ‘proportionality test‘ in the definition of indirect discrimination with the requirement to prove that the condition or requirement imposed has the effect of disadvantaging people with the disability of the aggrieved person
• shift the onus of proving the reasonableness of a requirement or condition in the context of indirect discrimination from the person with disability to the responden