Equality and Human Rights Commission

‘Substantial’ means more than ‘minor’ or ‘trivial’. The following can help you to decide if your disability or health condition is substantial.

When carrying out day-to-day tasks, does your condition make them more difficult in terms of:

• the time taken to carry out an activity, compared with someone who does not have your impairment;
• the way in which an activity is carried out, compared with how you might be expected to carry out the activity if you did not have the impairment; or
• the overall cumulative effect if the effects of more than one activity are taken together?

If changing your behaviour reduces the adverse (or negative) effects of your impairment on day-to-day activity, then you may not be covered by the DDA. However, you do not have to go to great lengths to change your behaviour. For example, a person with a stutter does not have to avoid going to places where they might meet people. This change could itself have an adverse effect on your day-to-day activities.

If the success of any coping strategies you use to reduce the adverse effect of your impairment is lessened by ‘environmental factors’ (such as extreme heat, humidity, how tired you are or how stressed you are), then this should be taken into account.