What laws and legislations protect adults with downs syndrome?
In addition to the ordinary laws there is the Disability Discrimination Act which forbids organisations from discriminating solely on the basis of disability. Obviously there would be objective grounds for not employing an adult with Downs as a professor of theoretical physics but refusing to serve someone with Downs in a shop or restaurant would be illegal if they were behaving appropriately. There are also provisions for assisting people with Downs to give evidence in a court – they would be vulnerable witnesses – but I think this may not be in legislation but procedural. There are also provisions to appoint a legal guardian for such an adult without a family member to act for them if they would find it difficult to handle their financial affairs for example – this might mean that the individual would have control over day to day spending but the guardian would cope with the various forms which today’s society requires and would counter-sign tenancy agreements etc. partly as a precau
