Your responsibilities
You should seek to ensure that field trips you arrange do not discriminate against any of your students. Failure to think about the range of your students' needs could result in unintentional indirect discrimination.
For example:
On a trip involving an overnight stay in dormitory-style accommodation, a university refuses to take a student who is in the process of changing gender. This would be unlawful gender reassignment discrimination.
You may be required to make reasonable adjustments to enable students with a range of disabilities to access field trips.
Libraries, study facilities and learning equipment
Senior management at strategic level and library staff need to think about provision for the needs of students with protected characteristics to avoid unintentional discrimination. Students with disabilities may require a range of reasonable adjustments such as low unit photocopiers, priority workstations, books in alternative formats, help with reaching books on higher shelves and flexible loan periods. Your ICT staff will be well versed in ensuring the compatibility of students’ assistive software with your IT systems.
For example:
A university librarian asks a breastfeeding mother to feed the baby in the toilets instead of the open area as she is offending other students. This would be unlawful pregnancy and maternity discrimination (or sex discrimination if the baby is over six months old).
Last updated: 19 Feb 2019