We have here the "tiers temps" for exams, allowing people with disabling problems to have more time (one third more) and the possibility to pass the exam alone in a room (with an examiner). It works for physical disabilities (big face lupus, leper, blind, deaf and dumb, etc...) as it works for people having some rare mental disabilities and being as a result a bit more slow but not dumber !
When we have the problem of religious days (friday, saturday, sunday), we don't say that such religion goer can miss a day, we find a system that allows everybody to miss a day, chosen by him in the week... The young mothers are just as happy as the poor student who can finance part of his studies...
This is more about universality (it's for everybody alike) then for "tagging" people "Oh, he's a ... (fill the blank)"! You never have to say why you miss a day to your fellow students nor the administration, as the system allows for it !
Asking about rights for such or such group is the best way I know for injustice... Thinking it over and finding a solution that fits all makes everyone happy ! "What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman
Religion I think is slightly different in some ways since methods can be found to allow different religions to co-exist - you gave an example of people choosing which day of the week to take off.
But ethnicity is different, so is gender and disability, and also age, because prejudices and stereotypes exist that marginalise those groups.
If no data is collected then this cannot be monitored for patterns to emerge. eg very, very few women are Chief execs compared to men. Is this because women are lazy, or because they have chosen to take time off for children or because they choose to paint their nails and dress up instead of working hard? Or are there other factors that are causing disadvantage and preventing women from reaching senior positions? We can only look into these trends when we have the data to show that there is some anomaly. Same thing applies to ethnicity but the causes are much more subtle.
If men and women, and black people and white people are so equal - why are there such big differences in outcomes?
I'm intrigued as to why the British approach is to gather data and find out more about why and how differences occur and the French approach is to treat everyone the same and not monitor anything. Ad astra per aspera
My very own mother, had a problem with some medical alarm at night (we wanted it for her) and her free bus pass for elderly ! The rules were so well done that she couldn't have the two... So before tossing over the alarm she went to see her deputy ( all free, no lawyers, just the classical way ) stated the problem - he told her about getting some commissions on the study- so she wrote and went to see the mayor of Paris - she did see him - he stated that this would change if he was re-elected - so... It finished in the PM cabinet with all those guys looking at a 95 years old woman arguing about injustice for the elderly ! This time she didn't win and tossed the alarm (she didn't care, it was for the fun of being a "citizen")
Twenty years ago she had a law passed "for her", meaning for all the people in her situation at that time (obscure thing about retirement points when abroad). She had made about the same trip around the different representative and the proposition was presented to the assembly and voted (maybe there was nobody as usual) :-)
This is what Habermas calls the integration by individual of society...
Or something not very different :-) "What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman
