Access & Training

The Disability Discrimination Act

Information for businesses and service providers
On 1 October 2004, the final section of Part Three of the Disability Discrimination Act came into force. This requires service providers to make 'reasonable adjustments' to the physical features of their premises to enable disabled people to access their services.

This page is designed to help service providers make their services more accessible by removing barriers:

What barriers do you have to consider?
It's easy to think about physical barriers such as steps or heavy doors — how does someone get into your shop, office, village hall, restaurant, pub etc? But don't forget the people who cannot see or hear very well and people with learning disabilities.

Whatever the cost of a reasonable adjustment, it is a lot less than any legal bill that you may incur if a disabled person takes you to court because it is unreasonably difficult for them to access your service. This could lead to a court order forcing you to do the work anyway.

However, the biggest barrier is attitude. It doesn't matter how accessible the building is, if you or your staff treat your disabled customers badly, they will take their custom elsewhere.

Why bother?
Optua has been inundated with requests for help from people worried about the Disability Discrimination Act. Mostly, people say they want to avoid being prosecuted. We think that's a shame. We would rather you made your service accessible because you value all your customers and want to include disabled people. However, whatever reason brings you here, we are pleased to welcome you and hope we can help.

There are some really good, positive reasons why you should be thinking about access to your service:

• Village halls, Churches, Public Buildings etc — You have a duty to all your parish, town, district or county constituents, not just a select few. Making access easier for disabled people makes access easier for everyone.
• Business — Disabled people make up one sixth of the population, and as the population ages, that number will rise. You are getting older too. Now think about the spending power of disabled people — millions of pounds a year in any market town. So it makes good business sense to make sure your business is accessible to everyone.

What simple steps can improve access?
These are just some suggestions:

• If fitting automatic doors is out of the question, how about making sure that they are light to push, wide enough for wheelchairs to fit through a single door, the handle is a good contrasting colour and any important signs have letters big enough to read.
• A doorbell, at a low enough height for wheelchair users to use, can attract your attention when someone needs help to get it.
• Provide a temporary ramp to assist a wheelchair user to get into a building, if a permanent ramp cannot be installed.
• Fit a service-call device, so that disabled people can buzz you from their car.
• Make sure disabled people can get to the sales counter — perhaps move a display to one side. If your counter is at the front of the shop, that shouldn't prove difficult.
• Provide a chair for elderly people to sit down by your sales counter, whilst you fetch what they want from the shelves — just like the old days!
• Consider taking telephone orders so people only have to pick up their order, rather than go round your shop.
• Consider selling on the internet.
• Think about providing a home delivery service.
• Visit your clients at home to deliver your service.
• If someone cannot read your menu, you could read it to them, or get a couple done with braille see-through dymo-tape on top.
• Fit an induction loop system. They are not expensive and only need to cover the sales counter.
• Provide accessible toilets.

Don't forget to put up a sign to tell disabled people what you have done — it may not be possible to tell from the outside of your premises.

Where can I go for more help?

• You can get lots more information from the Equality and Human Rights Commission on our links page or visit www.equalityhumanrights.com.
• Optua also provides disability training — look at the training page or call us to find out more on 01473 836777.
We may be able to arrange for Access Groups to visit your premises to give an opinion as to what 'reasonable adjustments' you might consider making to your premises.
• You can download our access survey to assist your planning.