A wheelchair-bound lecturer has won her disability fight against a top university after she was only offered a ramp ‘like a ski jump’ to get into her office.
Dr Nora Sarabajaya Kumar sued University College London (UCL) after she was unable to properly access the political science department building for eight years.
The academic also claimed she was excluded from staff away days and social events because of her disability – including one where she was ‘manhandled’ into a goods lift which was too small to accommodate her wheelchair.
Dr Kumar also said that at other events held in pubs she was forced to wait downstairs while colleagues gathered in inaccessible upper rooms, which made her feel ‘isolated and humiliated’.
The teaching fellow – who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare disorder which affects connective tissue – is in line for a payout after a tribunal found she faced a ‘substantial disadvantage’.
The department ‘ought to have’ ensured venue accessibility for staff events that were held in inaccessible areas, the tribunal said.
Dr Kumar, who is also registered as severely sight impaired, joined UCL as a teaching fellow in 2010 and became a wheelchair user in 2017 after her diagnosis.
She made repeated requests for support in accessing the political science department – based in Grade-II listed Georgian townhouses in Tavistock Square.
Dr Nora Sarabajaya Kumar sued University College London (pictured) after she was unable to properly access the political science department building for eight years
Although UCL spent £5million refurbishing adjoining buildings on Gordon Square from 2018, the university failed to apply for planning permission to install a lift or other suitable access features – incorrectly assuming the townhouses’ listed status would see them turned down.
Dr Kumar described a temporary ramp, which was removed in 2017 over fire safety concerns, as ‘frightening’ and ‘like a ski jump’.
Her office was based in another building which belonged to the economics department, 300m from where her colleagues were based.
The political science department applied to the university’s estates board for wheelchair access to Tavistock Square in October 2018, citing the need for a ramp, a lack of office space for wheelchair users and reputational damage.
In August the next year, planning was granted by Camden Council for the refurbishment – but no disability access to the building had even been requested.
Dr Kumar was excluded from several social events and away days because of her disability. At one event, there was hardly any light, and presenters did not read from their slides or describe what was on them.
She contacted her line manager and the departmental manager in February 2023 to reiterate her desire to access the department buildings, saying she had been ‘on the outside looking in’ and felt ‘lonely and isolated’.
The tribunal found this expression understandable given it had been around six years since she had been able to access the department.
Camden Council granted planning permission for the accessibility works in May 2024 and they are due to be completed in spring this year.
The tribunal found there was an ‘onus’ on UCL to check for themselves that off-site venues were accessible.
Employment Judge Timothy Adkin said: ‘We find that exclusion from the department building and from events which were not accessible was an obvious substantial disadvantage and [UCL] knew this.
‘The tribunal finds that [UCL] ought reasonably to have known that the venue would have caused [Dr Kumar] a substantial disadvantage.
‘It was known that she was a wheelchair user and that she had experienced accessibility problems before.
‘We find that there was an onus on [UCL] to go further than simply relying on the venue to check adequate wheelchair accessibility in relation to the teaching/meeting area, catering and toilet facilities.
‘This cannot have been done or at least adequately done. We find it ought to have been properly done.’
Dr Kumar won her claims for failure to make reasonable adjustments and disability harassment but lost a claim for disability discrimination.
Compensation will be decided at a later date.
