Is targeting education assistance to particular groups of students with a disability permitted under the DDA?
Concerns arise in this area when the groups selected as priority targets are narrower than the range of people with a disability as defined for the purposes of the DDA.Section 45 of the DDA provides (in relevant part): This Part does not render it unlawful to do an act that is reasonably intended to: (c) afford persons who have a disability or a particular disability grants, benefits or programs, whether direct or indirect, to meet their special needs in relation to: (i) … education … . In the Commission’s view grants or programs provided by the Commonwealth or others may have a target group of people with a disability more narrowly defined than the full range of disabilities within the DDA definition. Non-provision of such grants or programs to students who do not have a disability of the kind required to bring them within the target group would not therefore constitute unlawful discrimination. The only proviso to this is that targeting must genuinely be intended, on some reasonab
