Applying a barriers approach to monitoring disabled people’s employment: implications for the Disability Discrimination Act 20051

Abstract

The year 2005 witnessed the passing of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 through Parliament. The Act responds in part to the perceived need for more proactive legislation that seeks to encourage good employer and service provider practice from the outset and diminish discriminatory action. This article focuses on the employment provisions of the 2005 Act. The article is based on a scoping study carried out during the gestation of the Act that looks at the challenges of applying a barriers approach to a disability employment monitoring schemes. Monitoring schemes have been a key part of recent anti‐discriminatory legislation. The text of the Act and its Guidance might suggest that the future of monitoring as an explicit feature of proactive employer practice is uncertain. The article makes clear however the importance of disability employment monitoring if disabled people are to be better represented and receive equitable treatment in the workplace.