You may recall that I contacted Able2UK six years ago, about the following case of appalling discrimination referred to on your website at:http://www.able2uk.com/News/Travel/A-quiet-break-deaf-holiday-makers-sent-packing.html
It may be of interest to note that Iberia’s actions would have been unlawful in every country in the EU, except the UK, even including their own country of Spain, under the Spanish ‘Equality Act 2003, as illustrated by the following news story, where Iberia were forced by a Spanish court to apologise for their unlawful actions in carriage to Spanish deaf passengers in Spain at about the same time as the incident involving deaf passengers in the UK: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_21628.shtml
There is now an EU Regulation covering access to aviation only (but not also shipping) for disabled passengers, but it is, regrettably, full of holes.
There is a lacuna in the EU Regulation in Article 4-1a which allow large groups of deaf or other disabled passengers to be refused carriage simply because of our disability, despite (in the specific case of deaf passengers) having full physical mobility and posing less of a safety risk in an emergency than hearing passengers who do not speak English, due to supposedly exceeding the number of “persons with reduced mobility” that can be carried on one flight.
The EU Regulation also does not cover access to goods and services provided on board an aircraft, meaning that disabled passengers may lawfully be subject to gratuitous discrimination in relation to on-board services solely on account of their disability. Bringing aviation within Part 3 of the Equality Act in relation to disability discrimination would close the above lacunas. After all, if airlines are subject to UK discrimination law relating to refusal of carriage on all other protected grounds such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion (as they are), why should they not also be subject to UK discrimination law relating to refusal of carriage on the grounds of disability?
In addition, if a disabled passenger is refused carriage by a non-UK airline based elsewhere in the EU, they are obliged to go to that country to seek redress. In the case of (say) s Romanian airline, this would mean travelling to Romania to bring a case, in Romanian, under Romanian law, which is clearly completely impractical.
Every airline and cruise line in the world knows that the UK is the only country in the world in which they can lawfully refuse carriage to disabled passengers simply because they can, without a shred of any safety justification, as illustrated by the following case: http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/2859875/Plane-ban-for-deaf-traveller.html
Such appalling incidents of gratuitous discrimination against disabled passengers, which happen again and again in the UK but almost never happen in any other country in the Western world, are a direct result of the perverse and discriminatory exclusion of aviation (and shipping) from Part 3 of the UK Equality Act 2010 in relation to disability discrimination.
I also think it is completely unacceptable that, in the year 2011, it still remains lawful in the UK, and, amongst all Western countries, only in the UK, for a cruise liner or other shipping company to refuse carriage to disabled passengers for reasons of gratuitous discrimination based on their disability, without any safety justification whatsoever for the less favourable treatment. This is because of the exclusion of shipping from disability discrimination legislation in Part 3 of the old Disability Discrimination Act, which has been retained, by means of a savings order, even after that Act has been superseded by the Equality Act 2010.
The EHRC has described the exemption for aviation from the disability discrimination provisions of Part 3 of the Equality Act 2010 as “perverse”, stating that “
"162. Whilst the introduction of EU legislation on the rights of passengers with reduced mobility will address some of these problems, coverage by the domestic disability discrimination law is still required to give full protection to disabled passengers.
163. The EU regulations are unlikely to protect as wide a group of disabled people as the DDA since they apply only to ‘persons with reduced mobility’. A group of passengers who were ejected from a flight solely because of their deafness are unlikely to be entitled to legal redress. Equally, someone with HIV or cancer who has no symptoms is unlikely to be covered. Another example would be an airline’s refusal to board someone with Tourette’s. These individuals would probably fall outside the scope of the EU Regulation, but they are likely to be covered by the DDA."
and concluding that “coverage by the domestic disability discrimination law is still required to give full protection to disabled passengers”.
Additionally, the former chairman of the Disability Rights Commission has said that disabled people will never be fully equal, or enjoy equal civil rights under UK law, until aviation and shipping are brought fully within the scope of Part 3 of what is now the Equality Act 2010.
You will note that, in any case, such gratuitous discrimination by airlines continues to occur against disabled passengers on a regular basis in the UK, and only in the UK, since it has long since been outlawed by every other country in the civilised world:
There is one other issue involving direct discrimination against disabled people which you may wish to highlight, namely that 16-year-old pupils without a statement of special educational needs (that is to say, without disabilities), can choose their own sixth-form, and make related representations and appeals At the same time, 16-year-olds with a statement of special educational needs (i.e. with disabilities) are denied the same right as their non-disabled peers solely on account of their disability, and are officially considered in UK law as second-class citizens because of their disability. For example, hearing 16-year-old pupils can choose their sixth-form, but deaf 16-year-old pupils cannot, and this discrimination is written directly into the Education Act 1996 (as amended by sections 150-153 of the Education and Skills Act 2008).
