The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 was the first of its kind to protect disabled people from discrimination in areas including employment, the provision of goods and services, education and transport.
Between 1979 and 1995 there were more than a dozen failed attempts to introduce anti-discrimination legislation for disabled people (through private members’ bills), along the lines of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and Race Relations Act 1976.
The act (although a minimal response to the demands of the disability rights movement) was the result of concerted campaigning and activism over many years, including by the umbrella organisation Rights Now (1992-1995).
The act made it unlawful for employers to discriminate on grounds of disability, established a National Disability Council to advise the government on the elimination of discrimination against disabled people, and gave disabled people the right to take complaints to industrial tribunals. It differed from legislation relating to sex and race discrimination in a number of ways: through the addition of a general defence of justification of direct discrimination and a positive duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled persons; and through the absence of the concept of indirect discrimination.
The 1995 act was replaced by the Equality Act 2010.