By Gus Alexiou: Complete Post through this link…
Global non-profit Face Equality International is fighting hard to ensure that facial differences and other disfigurements are appropriately recognized and protected as a sub-category of disability rather than being dismissed, as is all too often the case, as less important primarily superficial and cosmetic concerns.
Over 100 million people worldwide live with a noticeable mark, scar or condition that affects their facial appearance either from birth or acquired later in life. Typical conditions that can cause FD include clefts, psoriasis or injuries arising from accidents or trauma such as automobile accidents, burns and acid attacks.
Within a legal paradigm, both the Americans With Disabilities Act in the U.S. and the Equality Act in the U.K. contain protections for individuals with severe facial disfigurement but a dearth of case law and successful prosecutions mean that guidelines are somewhat woolly and outright discrimination based solely on a facial difference is notoriously tricky to prove.
