disability n. a loss or restriction of functional ability or activity as a result of impairment of the body or mind.
Reviewing the facts provided to us:
- claimant is a 61-yo arts teacher sueing the Scottish local council.
- He alleged that he was a "victim of disability discrimination", proportedly avoiding hallways during his tenure at his former school as students would call him "baldy".
Baldness in his case cannot in any way be classed as a disability, as in isolation it does not affect his physical or mental capacity. If he had a legal council, that person should be disbarred - harassment would have given viable grounds for compensation (although that would still be weak too). This case does however bring to mind the differences between a disability and an illness, the latter taking into account the patient's perceptive of his disease/condition and its impact from not only the biological point of view, but also the psychosocial aspect too. If this guy had a problem, it would have been an illness, albeit one with a DSM classification. It's interesting from this article that the combination of the unsuccessful claimant's self-consciousness about his physical condition (which, given that he would have been 60 yo at the time when he left his school, is not that unusual) and the inability to deal with the constant touting from his students had led him to believe (or put on?) that he was "disabled". It also poses the question of why the local council should be responsible for the actions of students, engaging in what I see to be typical schoolyard antics, when it can be argued that imposing discipline and having thicker skin when it comes to dealing with teenagers are implied conditions for employment as a school teacher/figure of authority in any school.
