If you have a disability do you have to tell employers before accepting a job?

[verystressedmum]

Dd has a medical condition which is classed as a disability. This does affect her but she doesn't look disabled in any way.
If she were to apply for a job does she have to tell the potential employers about this condition before she accepts a job (if she's offered it).

If she doesn't tell anyone how could she then get the time off she would need to attend medical appointments etc does she just tell them when an appointment comes up?

No she doesn't have to tell them before accepting. If it will affect her ability to do all the duties of the job she should disclose when applying. She will probably need to fill out an equality and diversity form after accepting which will give her the opportunity to disclose the disability and request reasonable adjustments, which will open the conversation with the employer about how they can support her.

I hate to say it, but she really shouldn't disclose before receiving an offer (unless it will affect ability to do the job) as it's nearly impossible to prove discrimination at that stage.

She does not need to announce a disability in advance, but if she needs any reasonable adjustments to support her during recruitment and interview it would be logical to mention at the point of application.
As an organisation we send out someone's job offer and contract, once signed we ask if they need any reasonable adjustments or if we need to be aware of any disability.
We are a disability confident company and in an ideal world everyone would do this. It is against the law to discriminate against anyone for a disability but sadly many companies still do, often out of ignorance or lack of confidence which is a shame, there is so much support available including access to work. My gut instinct is always to be open and honest with an employer because if you aren't, get the job and start then have issues whilst they are breaking the law it can be massively demoralising and dent someone's confidence. Only your daughter can decide

I've always told people about mine I like to be upfront and honest. Never had an issue yet and I've had a couple of jobs.

Thanks for the replies. She doesn't have any issues which would affect her ability to do any job so it wouldn't need to be disclosed before she was offered a job, it would mainly be attending appointments and some tiredness.
I sort of wondered if it was disclosed after the job offer they would rescind the offer! But obviously that would be discrimination.
Also it's a worry that if there's a probation period they'd find problems and not carry on the employment because of it.

There will likely be a pre employment health assessment

It should be declared at that stage really

I’ve never had a pre employment health check, I think they are far from the norm actually.

You don’t have to declare any disability, however if you don’t, the employer can’t make any reasonable adjustments your DD requires. She can start the job and then flag it up if it’s a problem if she wishes. She is under no obligation at all to tell her employer.

It would be a good idea to research reasonable adjustments to make sure she’s asking for something reasonable (if she needs to) - time off for appointments is offered as standard by some employers (I can have up to four hours off paid a week to attend medical appointments for instance). I think the tiredness is more difficult to deal with actually, as it’s only considered “reasonable”for an employer to extend sick trigger points a tiny bit, for instance if she had one day off a week due to tiredness they would be justified in implementing their absence management procedures whereas if it was one day every couple of months this could be “reasonable” (this I know as I recently took advice about pretty much the same issue). If it is a frequent problem, she might be better off asking for a part time, four day week or shorter days over a five day week (also part time hours, I work 30 over five days for example) as a reasonable adjustment to manage the tiredness.