Ms Brooke-Ward (counsel) For the v Respondent — 2020

This was a preliminary hearing to decide whether the claimant was disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010 and whether the complaints about events up to May 2018, and complaints about Mr Asker, were in time. The tribunal found on the balance of probabilities that the claimant had dyslexia throughout her employment. It relied on the Harrogate College assessments, the support and extra time she had previously been given, and her evidence that she read and wrote more slowly, needed quiet space to work, could not take notes while listening, and struggled with spelling and written work. The tribunal held that these effects were more than minor or trivial and long-term, so dyslexia was a disability.

The tribunal also found that the claimant developed a mental impairment in the form of anxiety and depressive illness from May 2018. It preferred the GP and community mental health records, which showed medication, CBT, ongoing anxiety, low mood, and related physical symptoms, over occupational health opinions based only on telephone consultations and without the medical records. It held that the condition had a substantial adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities and was not merely an adverse reaction to workplace events. On the evidence before it, the tribunal found that by 27 March 2019 the effects were likely to last 12 months; the reasons section concludes that disability status from that impairment began on 1 January 2019, although the headnote states 1 February 2019.

The tribunal did not decide the limitation issue on the material before it. It said it could not determine without hearing evidence whether there had been conduct extending over a period that included the complaints up to May 2018 and the complaints about Mr Asker, and it left the question of time limits and any extension of time for the final hearing.