Federal Act
on the Elimination of Discrimination
against People with Disabilities
(Disability Discrimination Act, DDA)

¹ The Act has the pur­pose of pre­vent­ing, re­du­cing or elim­in­at­ing dis­crim­in­a­tion against people with dis­ab­il­it­ies.

² It lays down gen­er­al con­di­tions that make it easi­er for people with dis­ab­il­it­ies to par­ti­cip­ate in so­ci­ety and in par­tic­u­lar to cul­tiv­ate so­cial con­tacts in­de­pend­ently, and to have ac­cess to ba­sic and ad­vanced edu­ca­tion and train­ing and to em­ploy­ment.³

¹ In this Act, a per­son with a dis­ab­il­ityis a per­son who, due to a phys­ic­al, men­tal or psy­cho­lo­gic­al impair­ment which is likely to be per­man­ent, finds it dif­fi­cult or is un­able to carry out every­day tasks, cul­tiv­ate so­cial con­tacts, move around, ob­tain an edu­ca­tion or train­ing, or work.⁴

² Dis­crim­in­a­tionoc­curs when per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies are treated in leg­al or prac­tic­al terms dif­fer­ently from per­sons without dis­ab­il­it­ies and thus without ma­ter­i­al jus­ti­fic­a­tion are dis­ad­vant­aged when com­pared to per­sons without dis­ab­il­it­ies, or when they are not treated dif­fer­ently but dif­fer­ent treat­ment is ne­ces­sary to en­sure that per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies have the same rights as per­sons without dis­ab­il­it­ies.

³ Dis­crim­in­a­tion re­lat­ing to ac­cess to a build­ing, a struc­ture, a dwell­ing or a pub­lic trans­port fa­cil­ity or vehicleoc­curs when ac­cess for per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies is not pos­sible for struc­tur­al reas­ons or is only pos­sible with dif­fi­culty.

⁴ Dis­crim­in­a­tion in ob­tain­ing a ser­vice oc­curs when it is im­possible or only pos­sible with dif­fi­culty for per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies to ob­tain a ser­vice.

⁵ Dis­crim­in­a­tion in ac­cess to gen­er­al and ad­vanced edu­ca­tion and train­ing oc­curs in par­tic­u­lar when:

a.

it is dif­fi­cult for per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies to use aids or ob­tain the ne­ces­sary as­sist­ance from oth­er per­sons;

b.

the dur­a­tion and or­gan­isa­tion of the course and ex­am­in­a­tions are not ad­ap­ted to the spe­cif­ic needs of per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies.

This Act ap­plies to:

a.

pub­licly ac­cess­ible build­ings and struc­tures where au­thor­isa­tion for the con­struc­tion or renov­a­tion of their pub­licly ac­cess­ible areas is gran­ted fol­low­ing the com­mence­ment of this Act;

b.

pub­licly ac­cess­ible pub­lic trans­port fa­cil­it­ies (build­ings, struc­tures, com­mu­nic­a­tions sys­tems, tick­et of­fices and ma­chines) and vehicles that are sub­ject to any of the fol­low­ing Acts:

1.

the Rail­ways Act of 20 Decem­ber 1957⁵,

2.⁶

...

3.⁷

the Pas­sen­ger Trans­port Act of 20 March 2009⁸,

4.⁹

the Trol­ley­bus Act of 29 March 1950¹⁰,

5.¹¹

the Fed­er­al Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 1975¹² on In­land Nav­ig­a­tion,

6.

the Civil Avi­ation Act of 21 Decem­ber 1948¹³, or

7.¹⁴

the Cable­ways Act of 23 June 2006¹⁵, with the ex­cep­tion of ski lifts and aer­i­al cable­ways with few­er than nine places in each trans­port unit;

c.

res­id­en­tial build­ings with more than eight res­id­en­tial units where au­thor­isa­tion for their con­struc­tion or renov­a­tion is gran­ted fol­low­ing the com­mence­ment of this Act;

d.

build­ings with more than 50 work­places where au­thor­isa­tion for their con­struc­tion or renov­a­tion is gran­ted fol­low­ing the com­mence­ment of this Act;

e.¹⁶

ser­vices that are in prin­ciple made avail­able to any per­son by un­der­tak­ings that re­quire an in­fra­struc­ture li­cence un­der Art­icle 5 of the Rail­ways Act of 20 Decem­ber 1957 or a pas­sen­ger trans­port li­cence un­der Art­icle 6 of the Pas­sen­ger Trans­port Act of 20 March 2009, oth­er li­censed un­der­tak­ings or state au­thor­it­ies;

f.

ba­sic and ad­vanced edu­ca­tion and train­ing;

g.

em­ploy­ment con­tracts un­der the Fed­er­al Per­son­nel Act of 24 March 2000¹⁷.

This Act shall not over­ride can­ton­al pro­vi­sions that are more fa­vour­able to per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall take meas­ures to pre­vent, re­duce or elim­in­ate dis­crim­in­a­tion; in do­ing so, they shall take ac­count of the spe­cial needs of wo­men with dis­ab­il­it­ies.

² Ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures to al­le­vi­ate dis­crim­in­a­tion against per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies do not con­sti­tute un­equal treat­ment un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion.

Private en­tit­ies that of­fer pub­lic ser­vices may not dis­crim­in­ate against per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies due to their dis­ab­il­it­ies.

¹ Any per­son suf­fer­ing dis­crim­in­a­tion as defined in Art­icle 2 para­graph 3 may when a build­ing or struc­ture as defined in Art­icle 3 let­ters a, c and d is con­struc­ted or ren­ov­ated:

a.

dur­ing the build­ing au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure, re­quest the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity that the dis­crim­in­a­tion cease;

b.

by way of ex­cep­tion, claim in civil pro­ceed­ings a leg­al right to the elim­in­a­tion of dis­crim­in­a­tion on con­clu­sion of the build­ing au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure, where the fail­ure to take the meas­ures re­quired by law was not re­cog­nis­able dur­ing the build­ing au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure.

² Any per­son who suf­fers dis­crim­in­a­tion as defined in Art­icle 2 para­graph 3 in re­la­tion to a pub­lic trans­port fa­cil­ity or vehicle as defined in Art­icle 3 let­ter b may re­quest the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity to or­der the li­censed un­der­tak­ing to elim­in­ate or cease the dis­crim­in­a­tion.¹⁸

¹ Any per­son who suf­fers dis­crim­in­a­tion as defined in Art­icle 2 para­graph 4 by a li­censed un­der­tak­ing or a state au­thor­ity may re­quest a court or an ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity to or­der the pro­vider of the ser­vice to elim­in­ate or cease the dis­crim­in­a­tion.¹⁹

² Any per­son suf­fers dis­crim­in­a­tion as defined in Art­icle 2 para­graph 5 by a state au­thor­ity may re­quest a court or an ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity to or­der the state au­thor­ity to elim­in­ate or cease the dis­crim­in­a­tion.

³ Any per­son who suf­fers dis­crim­in­a­tion as defined in Art­icle 6 may claim com­pens­a­tion in a court.

¹ Or­gan­isa­tions for per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies op­er­at­ing throughout Switzer­land that have been es­tab­lished for at least ten years may take leg­al ac­tion in cases of dis­crim­in­a­tion that af­fect a sub­stan­tial num­ber of per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate the or­gan­isa­tions en­titled to ap­peal.

³ These or­gan­isa­tions have a right of ap­peal:

a.

in civil pro­ceed­ings to de­clare that there is dis­crim­in­a­tion as defined in Art­icle 6;

b.

in pro­ceed­ings to grant au­thor­isa­tion for the con­struc­tion or the renov­a­tion of build­ings and struc­tures in or­der to en­force the leg­al rights defined in Art­icle 7;

c.

in pro­ceed­ings by the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies for plan­ning ap­prov­al and for the re­gis­tra­tion or test­ing of vehicles un­der:

1.

Art­icle 13 para­graph 1 of the Road Traffic Act of 19 Decem­ber 1958²⁰,

2.

Art­icle 18 and 18w of the Rail­ways Act of 20 Decem­ber 1957²¹,

3.

Art­icle 11 and 13 of the Fed­er­al Act of 29 March 1950²² on Trol­ley­bus Com­pan­ies,

4.²³

Art­icles 8 14 and 15b para­graph 2 of the Fed­er­al Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 1975²⁴ on In­land Nav­ig­a­tion,

5.

Art­icle 37 of the Air Nav­ig­a­tion Act of 21 Decem­ber 1948²⁵,

6.²⁶

Art­icle 9 of the Cable­ways Act of 23 June 2006²⁷;

d.

against rul­ings by the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies on the grant­ing of li­cences un­der:

1.

Art­icles 28 and 30 of the Air Nav­ig­a­tion Act of 21 Decem­ber 1948,

2.

Art­icle 14 of the Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Act of 30 April 1997²⁸,

3.

Art­icle 10 of the Fed­er­al Act of 21 June 1991²⁹ on Ra­dio and Tele­vi­sion.

⁴ The au­thor­ity shall give no­tice of rul­ings un­der para­graph 3 let­ters c and d that may be sub­ject to an ap­peal by or­gan­isa­tions for per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies to the or­gan­isa­tions in writ­ing or by pub­lic­a­tion in the Of­fi­cial Fed­er­al Gaz­ette or in the can­ton­al pub­lic­a­tion or­gan. An or­gan­isa­tion that does not file an ap­peal may only par­ti­cip­ate in sub­sequent pro­ceed­ings as a party if the rul­ing is amended such that per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies are dis­crim­in­ated against.

⁵ If ob­jec­tion pro­ceed­ings are con­duc­ted be­fore a rul­ing is is­sued, no­tice must be giv­en of the ap­plic­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 4. An or­gan­isa­tion has a right of ap­peal only if it was a party to the ob­jec­tion pro­ceed­ings.

¹ Pro­ceed­ings un­der Art­icles 7 and 8 are free of charge.

² A party that acts in bad faith or that fails to take the pro­ceed­ings ser­i­ously may be re­quired to pay pro­ced­ur­al costs.

³ In pro­ceed­ings be­fore the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court, the court costs are gov­erned by the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court Act of 17 June 2005³⁰.³¹

¹ The court or the ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity is not re­quired to or­der the elim­in­a­tion of dis­crim­in­a­tion if the ex­pec­ted be­ne­fit for per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies is dis­pro­por­tion­ate in par­tic­u­lar to:

a.

the fin­an­cial cost;

b.

the in­terests of en­vir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion and the pro­tec­tion of nature and cul­tur­al her­it­age;

c.

trans­port and op­er­a­tion­al safety con­cerns.

² In de­term­in­ing com­pens­a­tion un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 3, the court shall take ac­count of the cir­cum­stances, the ser­i­ous­ness of the dis­crim­in­a­tion and the value of the ser­vice. Com­pens­a­tion shall amount to a max­im­um of 5000 francs.

¹ When weigh­ing-up in­terests un­der Art­icle 11 para­graph 1, the court or the ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity is not re­quired to or­der the elim­in­a­tion of dis­crim­in­a­tion re­lat­ing to ac­cess to build­ings, struc­tures and dwell­ings un­der Art­icle 3 let­ters a, c and d if the cost of the modi­fic­a­tions ex­ceeds five per cent of the in­sur­ance value of the build­ing or new value of the struc­ture or 20 per cent of the renov­a­tion costs.

² When weigh­ing-up in­terests un­der Art­icle 11 para­graph 1, the court or the ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity shall take ac­count of the time re­quired to make ad­apt­a­tions in pub­lic trans­port (Art. 22); ac­count must also be taken of the fed­er­al im­ple­ment­a­tion concept for the pay­ment of fin­an­cial as­sist­ance (Art. 23 para. 3) and the op­er­a­tions and in­vest­ment plans of the pub­lic trans­port com­pany based there­on.

³ The court or the ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity shall re­quire the li­censed un­der­tak­ing or state au­thor­ity to of­fer an ap­pro­pri­ate al­tern­at­ive solu­tion if it de­cides un­der Art­icle 11 para­graph 1 not to or­der the elim­in­a­tion of dis­crim­in­a­tion.³²

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion as an em­ploy­er shall make every ef­fort to of­fer per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies the same op­por­tun­it­ies as those without dis­ab­il­it­ies. In all em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ships and at all levels, but in par­tic­u­lar in the case of em­ploy­ment va­can­cies, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall take the meas­ures re­quired to im­ple­ment the Act.

² Para­graph 1 ap­plies to em­ploy­ers un­der Art­icle 3 of the Fed­er­al Per­son­nel Act of 24 March 2000³³.

¹ In its deal­ings with the pub­lic, the au­thor­it­ies shall take ac­count of the spe­cial con­cerns of per­sons with speech, hear­ing or visu­al dis­ab­il­it­ies.

² Where they of­fer their ser­vices on­line, such ser­vices must be ac­cess­ible to per­sons with visu­al dis­ab­il­it­ies without dif­fi­culty. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the re­quired tech­nic­al reg­u­la­tions. It may de­clare tech­nic­al stand­ards to be bind­ing for private or­gan­isa­tions.

³ In ad­di­tion to the be­ne­fits un­der In­valid­ity In­sur­ance, the Con­fed­er­a­tion may:

a.

sup­port can­ton­al meas­ures to pro­mote the aca­dem­ic and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing of per­sons with speech or hear­ing dis­ab­il­it­ies in sign and spoken lan­guage and to pro­mote the lan­guage skills of per­sons with visu­al dis­ab­il­it­ies;

b.

sup­port non-profit or­gan­isa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions of na­tion­al im­port­ance that ad­dress the prob­lems of lan­guage and un­der­stand­ing faced by per­sons with speech, hear­ing or visu­al dis­ab­il­it­ies.

⁴ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may pro­mote meas­ures to make tele­vi­sion pro­grammes ac­cess­ible to per­sons with hear­ing or visu­al dis­ab­il­it­ies.

¹ To en­sure the pro­vi­sion of a pub­lic trans­port sys­tem suit­able for per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions for li­censed un­der­tak­ings that re­quire a li­cence un­der fed­er­al law on the design:³⁴

a.

of rail­way sta­tions, pub­lic trans­port stops and air­ports;

b.

of com­mu­nic­a­tions sys­tems and tick­et-is­su­ing sys­tems;

c.

of vehicles.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions on meas­ures be­ne­fit­ing per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies for build­ings and struc­tures that the Con­fed­er­a­tion con­structs or partly fin­ances.

³ The reg­u­la­tions un­der para­graphs 1 and 2 shall be reg­u­larly ad­ap­ted to the state of the art. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may de­clare tech­nic­al stand­ards or oth­er stip­u­la­tions to be bind­ing on private or­gan­isa­tions.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall con­sult in­ter­ested groups be­fore is­su­ing the reg­u­la­tions un­der para­graphs 1 and 2.

⁵ Dif­fer­ent reg­u­la­tions may be is­sued for ex­ist­ing and new build­ings, struc­tures, com­mu­nic­a­tions and tick­et is­su­ing sys­tems, and vehicles.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may con­duct pro­grammes to pro­mote the in­teg­ra­tion of per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies in­to so­ci­ety.

² The pro­grammes may re­late to the fol­low­ing mat­ters in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

edu­ca­tion;

b.

em­ploy­ment;

c.

hous­ing;

d.

per­son­al trans­port;

e.

cul­ture;

f.

sport.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may par­ti­cip­ate in such pro­grammes where they are offered by na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions or or­gan­isa­tions in spe­cif­ic lan­guage re­gions, in par­tic­u­lar by provid­ing fin­an­cial as­sist­ance.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­duct or sup­port fixed-term pi­lot pro­jects in or­der to test in­cent­ive sys­tems for the em­ploy­ment of per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies. It may to this end provide in­vest­ment con­tri­bu­tions for the cre­ation or equip­ping of work­places suit­able for per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may con­duct in­form­a­tion cam­paigns in or­der to in­crease pub­lic aware­ness of the prob­lems re­gard­ing equal­ity and in­teg­ra­tion of per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies and to in­dic­ate to the groups con­cerned what ac­tion can be taken.

² It may ad­vise and make re­com­mend­a­tions to private in­di­vidu­als and au­thor­it­ies.

³ It shall reg­u­larly mon­it­or the ef­fect that its meas­ures are hav­ing on in­teg­ra­tion. It may also in­vest­ig­ate the ef­fects of meas­ures taken by oth­er state au­thor­it­ies or private in­di­vidu­als.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish a Bur­eau for the Equal­ity of Per­sons with Dis­ab­il­it­ies. This shall in par­tic­u­lar pro­mote:

a.

in­form­a­tion on the stat­utory prin­ciples and guidelines on pre­vent­ing, re­du­cing or elim­in­at­ing dis­crim­in­a­tion against people with dis­ab­il­it­ies;

b.

pro­grammes and cam­paigns un­der Art­icles 16 and 18;

c.

ana­lyses and sur­veys re­lat­ing to equal rights and the in­teg­ra­tion of per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies;

d.

co­ordin­a­tion of the activ­it­ies of pub­lic and private or­gan­isa­tions in this field.

¹ The can­tons shall en­sure that chil­dren and young people with dis­ab­il­it­ies re­ceive a ba­sic edu­ca­tion ad­ap­ted to their spe­cial needs.

² Wherever pos­sible and be­ne­fi­cial to the child or young per­son with a dis­ab­il­ity, the can­tons shall provide suit­able forms of school­ing to en­cour­age the in­teg­ra­tion of chil­dren and young people with dis­ab­il­it­ies in the reg­u­lar school sys­tem.

³ In par­tic­u­lar, they shall en­sure that that chil­dren and young people with per­cep­tu­al or ar­tic­u­la­tion dis­orders and per­sons close to them can learn a com­mu­nic­a­tion tech­nique ap­pro­pri­ate for the dis­ab­il­ity.

The amend­ment of cur­rent le­gis­la­tion is reg­u­lated in the An­nex.

¹ Ex­ist­ing pub­lic trans­port build­ings, struc­tures and vehicles must be ad­ap­ted for use by per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies with­in 20 years of the com­mence­ment of this Act.

² Com­mu­nic­a­tions sys­tems and tick­et is­su­ing sys­tems must be ad­ap­ted for use by per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies with­in ten years of the com­mence­ment of this Act.

³ Pri­or to the ad­apt­a­tion dead­lines un­der para­graphs 1 and 2, pub­lic trans­port com­pan­ies have the right to have their op­er­a­tions and in­vest­ment plans based on the fed­er­al im­ple­ment­a­tion concept for the grant­ing of fin­an­cial as­sist­ance (Art. 23 para. 3) con­sidered.

¹ With­in the scope of their re­spons­ib­il­it­ies for the fund­ing of pub­lic trans­port, the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall grant fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for the meas­ures un­der Art­icle 22.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall spe­cify a spend­ing ceil­ing for a peri­od of 20 years.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall in par­tic­u­lar spe­cify the pri­or­it­ies, con­di­tions and ap­plic­able rates for fin­an­cial as­sist­ance.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date:³⁵ 1 Jan. 2004
An­nex Nos 2 and 3: 1 Jan. 2005