Interesting.
UK disability discrimination law means that employers have started to specifically ask these questions – nominally because if they don’t make “reasonable adaptation” during the selection process (particularly at interviews) they can be taken to court. So application forms now often have a box to fill in for disability/medical/whatever, their excuse being that they can’t ensure candidates with disabilities are treated fairly if they don’t know about it in advance.
In practice, I think it’s used to do exactly the opposite – weed out disabilities the employer finds inconvenient. And of course, because the box is there, you either have to declare or you have to lie. And then if you have problems with your employer at a later date, which they can link back to your condition, their legal position against you will be considerably stronger.
This is the official UK government advice … http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/Employmentsupport/LookingForWork/DG_4000219
:sigh:
Medicalert, btw, isn’t as good here as it is in the US. You can’t put meds doses on it. My eldest is on an ever-changing cocktail of Epilepsy meds at about double the recommended doses. The emergency services would have no idea how much to give her if they had to rely on her Medicalert details.
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