“You don’t look disabled”

To mark international day of disabled people on 3 December, the TUC has published guidance for trade union representatives and disabled workers under the title "You don't look disabled". The individual case studies it presents show why it is needed.

Much of the population assumes that disabled people use wheelchairs to get around, or carry white sticks. But the truth is that millions of people who count as disabled in law (the Equality Act 2010) show no visible sign of impairment. One result of this ignorance is that every day disabled people get abused for using supermarket disabled parking spaces because they don't "look" disabled.

Invisible conditions (like cancer, depression or dyslexia) mean that the individual is protected against discrimination and entitled to request a "reasonable adjustment" to remove the barriers that make their participation more difficult, such as a parking space near the shop or office, or changes to working hours, or special software on the PC, or time off for medical appointments. Each individual's needs are different and while many disabled people don't need adjustments, the law means employers and service providers have to respond when they do.

But the personal stories reproduced in the new TUC guidance show that many employers (and fellow workers) share the popular failure to understand that "disability" does not have to be visible. The consequences when the employer does not accept that the worker is disabled can be serious for everyone: our case studies confirm that the disabled worker's life can be made unbearable and can lose them a job, while employers may end up in court facing hefty compensation for disability discrimination when the law is invoked.

At root the problem lies in seeing the disabled person, individually, as the "problem". This "medical model" of disability has dominated thinking for centuries. The TUC supports the alternative presented by the disabled people's movement, the "social model" that identifies the problem as the barriers that prevent many millions of people with impairments from participating in work, or society. The disability is caused by the barrier, not the individual's impairment. The law's emphasis on the duty to make adjustments to allow disabled people to participate occupies a sort of "half way house" between these models but too many people don't understand.

The UK government has signed up to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which is based on the social model. This international day of disabled people, it would be great news if the government were to indicate its support for the social model and set out plans to challenge popular misconceptions about disability. Sadly, this doesn't look likely - and misconceptions are not helped by some of the rhetoric around welfare reform. Meanwhile, the new TUC guidance aims to help unions to support disabled workers and encourage a wider change in understanding