Media & Disability
Guide on media & disability
Legal Issues
Discrimination
Discrimination means treating people less favourably because of their disability. Unlike other diversity legislation, positive discrimination in favour of disabled people is permitted in some countries. Disabled people who believe that employers, or potential employers, have discriminated against them can usually, in most countries, bring a legal claim. If successful this can lead to an award of compensation for financial loss and injury to feelings. Adverse publicity may also result.
Health and Safety
One justification sometimes used for not employing a disabled person is concern over health and safety. There are few circumstances where health and safety problems represent an insuperable obstacle to employing someone with a disability.
Health and safety concerns should be addressed as part of the risk assessment process that is applied to all employees, and, in broadcasting, to all circumstances in which filming or recording takes place.
The key is to ensure that your assessment of a disabled person takes into account the feasibility of reasonable adjustments to reduce any potential health and safety risk, and to consider each individual and the specific circumstances in which he or she will be working. For example, a deaf technician might not be able to hear a fire alarm, but arrangements could be made for others in the team to alert this person if necessary.
Insurance
Insurance can be a complex area of any production. In most cases, insurance cover for disabled employees should be no more costly than for any other employees. Insurers ought not to charge more to cover disabled people simply because of the disability – there should be a proven increased risk, for example, of developing a medical condition related to the person’s impairment. This includes travel insurance, for example, for a foreign shoot. For insurance purposes a disability is not an illness. However, higher premiums or exclusions may be made where there is a risk that an illness related to an impairment might arise. This can happen with non-disabled employees too, when there is a possibility of an illness recurring.