Today’s correspondent says:

I have recently worked with a graduate paramedic who has dyslexia (which was known to the ambulance service during the interview process) and it impacts his case reports. A large amount of the words are misspelt and some of the sentences don’t make sense. As the case report is our only legal document, does the ambulance service have an obligation to help support this staff member? I emailed our region’s director to see if a laptop could be personally allocated to the staff member and the program OpenDyslexia be installed (which has been shown to help this person). However, time has passed and nothing has been done to help this staff member’s situation thus my question!

As said often enough I cannot give legal advice so I cannot comment on this particular paramedic or the suggested solution.  What one can say is that an employer has an obligation to make reasonable adjustments to allow a person who needs assistance to work (Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth); see also state anti-discrimination legislation, but given that I don’t know what jurisdiction this question comes from, I’ll stick with the Commonwealth Act).

The Act prohibits direct discrimination (s 5):

For the purposes of this Act, a person (the discriminator ) discriminates against another person (the aggrieved person ) on the ground of a disability of the aggrieved person if, because of the disability, the discriminator treats, or proposes to treat, the aggrieved person less favourably than the discriminator would treat a person without the disability in circumstances that are not materially different.

Arguably the graduate paramedic has been employed and there is no direct discrimination. There is also indirect discrimination. Section 6(1) gives a definition of indirect discrimination. Section 6(2) says:

For the purposes of this Act, a person (the discriminator) also discriminates against another person (the aggrieved person) on the ground of a disability of the aggrieved person if:

(a)  the discriminator requires, or proposes to require, the aggrieved person to comply with a requirement or condition; and

(b)  because of the disability, the aggrieved person would comply, or would be able to comply, with the requirement or condition only if the discriminator made  reasonable adjustments  for the person, but the discriminator does not do so or proposes not to do so; and

(c)  the failure to make  reasonable adjustments  has, or is likely to have, the effect of disadvantaging persons with the disability.

Here the argument might be that the requirement to use the laptop to record patient details is likely to disadvantage the ‘person with the disability’ in that his or her records will be less than complete, harder to understand and may subject them to difficulty or embarrassment in the future.  If reasonable adjustments, such as specialised software, would overcome the disadvantage then they should be made.

Adjustments do not need to be made if a person’s disability means they cannot perform the inherent tasks of the job (s 21A) or would impose an ‘unjustifiable hardship’ on the discriminator (s 21B).

Conclusion

I cannot say whether requiring a paramedic with dyslexia to use the electronic records is a disadvantage to them and therefore indirect discrimination nor can I say whether the provision of OpenDyslexia would constitute a reasonable adjustment. 

What I can say is that any employer must not discriminate against a person the grounds of disability and that includes both direct and indirect discrimination.  Where a person is disadvantaged by a job requirement or condition, reasonable adjustments are required. What is a reasonable adjustment must be determined in each case.

This blog is a general discussion of legal principles only.  It is not legal advice. Do not rely on the information here to make decisions regarding your legal position or to make decisions that affect your legal rights or responsibilities. For advice on your particular circumstances always consult an admitted legal practitioner in your state or territory.