Disability Access News

Changing Faces, a charity that supports and represents people with disfigurements, believes that discrimination is still taking place in the workplace towards people with disfigurements. Henrietta Spalding, head of professional development at the charity, says that there is a discrepancy between what the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) says and what actually takes place in the workplace.

In an interview with Workplace Law Network, Spalding said: ‘We had a report this morning from an individual who has found that when he doesn’t put disability on his CV, he is called to interview. But he has been to 200 interviews and still doesn’t have a job. There is a clear problem, and anecdotally we have a lot of evidence that people are not protected by the law, or at least good practice is not being demonstrated.’

Changing Faces is now undertaking research to gather information about what people with disfigurements actually experience within the workplace and when seeking employment. The charity hopes that it will strengthen the anecdotal evidence that it has been hearing for the past 15 years.