Conditions that can be corrected by medication or treatment

Measures to treat or correct the adverse effects of an impairment, such as drugs or a prosthetic limb, must be ignored when deciding whether someone is disabled. There is an exception for conditions that are correctible by ordinary spectacles and contact lenses (Schedule 1 Part 1, para 5(1)(b) EA 10). Whether a sight condition is “correctible” is a practical question (see Mart v Assessment Services Inc [2019] UKEATS/0032/18/SS).

Type 2 diabetes has caused some challenges for the employment tribunal. In Metroline Travel Limited v Stoute [2015] UKEAT 0302/14/2601, the EAT ruled that Mr Stoute’s Type 2 diabetes, manageable by avoiding sugary food and drink, was not a disability.

Paragraph B7 of the statutory guidance on disability (see page 213) says that sometimes coping strategies and changes in behaviour such as diet and lifestyle, can be so successful that the effect of an impairment is no longer “substantial”, so that the person is no longer disabled, suggesting that someone who unreasonably fails to adopt such coping strategies may not be protected by the EA 10.