jats:titleAbstract</jats:title> jats:pThe Equality Act 2010 provides that people with severe disfigurements are deemed to be disabled. Through the lens of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and models of disability, this article highlights a number of difficulties with the the Act’s approach , including the problematic ‘severity’ threshold, the issue of complex conditions which include both disfigurement and functional impairment and a lack of provision for progressively disfiguring conditions. Analysis is then provided of opportunities to mitigate these difficulties, specifically the concept of perceptive discrimination, and the application of the duty to make reasonable adjustments to disfiguring conditions. It is argued that the law needs to be reformed and options for change are presented.</jats:p>