PATHLENSA RISKATLAS.CO.ZA PRODUCT · SOUTH AFRICA
RISKATLAS.CO.ZA
Employment Equity · Disability
Answer the three parts of the legal test in plain language. The tool gives a screening conclusion and explains what evidence a funder or employer may still require.
Is there a physical, sensory, mental, psychosocial, intellectual, neurodevelopmental or other impairment/condition affecting you?
The Employment Equity test focuses on the effect of an impairment, not on whether you use a particular diagnostic label.Has it lasted, or is it expected to last, about 12 months or longer — or does it recur in a substantially limiting way?
The Code describes long-term as lasting or likely to persist for at least 12 months. Recurring conditions can qualify when they are likely to happen again and be substantially limiting.Does it meaningfully limit your ability to get into, participate in, or progress in work without support or accommodation?
The question is about real functional effect in the employment context, not diagnosis alone.After ordinary treatment, medication or a device that effectively controls or corrects the impairment, is there still a meaningful work-related functional limitation?
The Code says an impairment may fall outside the definition if it is so easily controlled, corrected or lessened that it has no limiting effect. Its example is ordinary spectacles/contact lenses where corrected vision is not substantially impaired. This is separate from reasonable accommodation an employer may need to provide.A recurring condition can qualify where it is likely to happen again and be substantially limiting. A progressive condition is covered once its effect becomes substantially limiting. A diagnosis or future risk on its own is not enough if there is no substantially limiting functional effect.
Where an impairment or its functional effect is not obvious, the Code/TAG allows existing or historical information or appropriately qualified expertise to help establish the impairment and its functional limitation.
A person can fall outside the Employment Equity disability definition and still have rights or practical needs that require fair treatment, accessibility or reasonable/temporary accommodation depending on the circumstances. The disability-definition screen should not be used to deny support automatically.
Ordinary correction/control that removes the limiting effect can mean the Employment Equity disability definition is not met. Needing reasonable accommodation at work is a separate question and should not be confused with whether ordinary correction removes the impairment's limiting effect.
The legal test is about duration/recurrence and functional effect. A diagnosis by itself does not automatically answer the Employment Equity question.
Study funding
NSFAS uses its own supporting-evidence process for disability-related funding and the higher household-income threshold.
For 2026, NSFAS states that students with disabilities are assessed against a household-income threshold of up to R600,000.Sources