ABSTRACT

A range of arguments has been put forward in the UK to justify opposition to measures that would make discrimination against disabled people illegal. They include: that an adequate definition of ‘disability’ is impossible, that legislation would therefore be too complex to draft and that it would drive a wedge between disabled and non-disabled people. Colin Barnes refutes each of these arguments in turn and then specifies the terms of an anti-discrimination law. He argues that such a law has to be based on the notion of social ‘rights’, not individual ‘needs’.