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E-news Issue 271

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Icons of examples of accommodation for people with disabilities, including a ramp, braille text and a captioned video.

Time to introduce duty to make reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities

In the spirit of International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 Dec), EOC Chairperson Mr Ricky CHU Man-kin published an article in Ming Pao Daily and the South China Morning Post on 3 and 4 Dec 2021 respectively, explaining why it is important to introduce a distinct duty to provide reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities under Hong Kong’s Disability Discrimination Ordinance – a reform the EOC has been advocating since a review of the city’s anti-discrimination laws in 2016.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines reasonable accommodation as the appropriate modification and adjustments necessary to ensure that people with disabilities can exercise all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with others, without imposing a disproportionate or undue burden on the party making the accommodation.

Examples in employment settings may include installing screen-reading software for employees with visual challenges, captioning training videos for deaf or hard-of-hearing employees, or allowing employees to work from home when they experience temporary mobility difficulties.

“Of essence here is a mindset shift, from what is academically known as the medical model of disability – one focusing on the individual and pathology – to a social, rights-based model that addresses institutional and attitudinal hurdles to inclusion,” wrote Mr Chu. “Our law needs to evolve to reflect this modern approach to protecting disability rights already adopted in other common law jurisdictions such as Britain and Australia, where a failure to comply with the duty may constitute discrimination.”

In fact, over 92% of Hongkongers consider it “very or quite important” to urge the Government to introduce such a duty, according to the Equal Opportunities Awareness Survey 2021 released by EOC last month.

The EOC is aware that some employers, especially SMEs, worry that the proposed duty would increase their financial burden. But as Mr Chu noted, such concerns stem from a misunderstanding of the duty, which would only require accommodation where it is “reasonable” and not disproportionate.

He added, “And to truly empower disabled people to participate in all aspects of society, the duty should not be limited to the workplace, but should also cover other important areas, including in education, service provision and access to premises.”

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