Disability discrimination

A general guide on how you are protected from discrimination under the Equality Act and what your rights are.

Useful contacts

Mind's services

Mind's Legal Line provides legal information and general advice by phone.
Local Minds offer face-to-face services across England and Wales. These services include talking therapies, peer support and advocacy.

How to find an advocate

To find advocacy services and groups in your area, you could call Mind's Legal Line on 0300 466 6463 or contact your local Mind.

If you're in hospital, you can also contact the:

Patient Advice Liaison Service (PALS) in England
Community Health Council in Wales

In some situations, you may be legally entitled to the support of an advocate. For more information, see our page on your legal rights to advocacy.

Other organisations

Civil Legal Advice (CLA)

gov.uk/civil-legal-advice
Can tell you if you're eligible for legal aid, and give you free and confidential legal advice if so.

Coram Children's Legal Centre

childrenslegalcentre.com
Provides free legal information, advice and representation for children, young people, their families, carers and professionals.

Disability Law Service

dls.org.uk
Charity providing free legal advice and representation for disabled people.

Disability Rights UK

disabilityrightsuk.org
Information and support on disabled people's rights.

Disability Unit

gov.uk/government/organisations/disability-unit
Supports the development of policies to remove inequality between disabled and non-disabled people.

Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)

0808 800 0082 (helpline)
18001 0808 800 0084 (textphone)
equalityadvisoryservice.com
Advice on issues relating to equality and human rights, including guidance for disabled people.

Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)

equalityhumanrights.com
Promotes and monitors human rights and equality.

Independent Parental Special Education Advice (IPSEA)

ipsea.org.uk
Provides information, advice and support for families of children with specialist educational needs and disabilities.

Law Centres Network

lawcentres.org.uk
Information about Law Centres, which defend the legal rights of people who can't afford a lawyer. Includes a searchable directory.

Law Society

lawsociety.org.uk
Professional association for solicitors in England and Wales. Includes a searchable directory of solicitors.

LawWorks

lawworks.org.uk
Connects volunteer lawyers with people who aren't eligible for legal aid and can't afford to pay for legal advice. Includes details of free legal advice clinics.

Shelter Cymru

0345 075 5005
sheltercymru.org.uk
Free, confidential advice on housing and homelessness in Wales.

Shelter England

0808 800 4444
england.shelter.org.uk
Free, confidential advice on housing and homelessness in England.

Was this page useful? Yes No Tell us more Tell us more

Tell us more

Why did you visit this page? *

For my own mental health
For someone else’s mental health
Academic/educational/professional reason
Other reason

What do you want to tell us about?

Praise – things we do well
Criticism – things we could do better
Errors, mistakes or broken links

Please give us your feedback:

Note:

Please don’t include personal details like your name or email address. If you do, data protection law means we’ll have to delete your comments.
Unfortunately we can’t reply to this. If you want a response from us, see our Contact us page.
If you are in crisis right now and want to talk to someone urgently then you could call Samaritans on 116 123 (freephone). Our pages on crisis services have more options.

There has been a problem submitting your feedback.

Thankyou for providing your feedback.

This information was published in October 2023. We will revise it in 2026.

References are available on request. If you would like to reproduce any of this information, see our page on permissions and licensing.

Campaigning

Volunteering

Membership