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The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 originally introduced new measures to
end discrimination against disabled people. The Act provides that, in certain
areas, it is unlawful to discriminate against people whom the Act defines as
having a disability. It is the first major legislation in this country to address
the issue of discrimination against disabled people, and it places obligations
on services providers, employers and others. Some requirements of the Act are
being phased in over a number of years. The 1995 Act was subsequently amended
in 2005, but these amendments are additions to, or clarifications of the 1995
legislation. The 1995 legislation is still the primary statute on disability
in the UK. This Appendix summarises the provisions of the Act, with particular
reference to its implications for the built environment.
The Act covers five main areas:
Employers must not discriminate unjustifiably against disabled employees or
job applicants and must make reasonable adjustments to any arrangements or physical
features which place disabled employees - or potential employees - at a substantial
disadvantage.
It is unlawful for service providers to refuse to serve disabled people, or
provide a lower standard of service, for reasons related to their disability,
without justification.
Service providers have to take reasonable steps to:
From October 2004, service providers have to take reasonable steps to remove,
alter, or provide reasonable means of avoiding physical features that make it
impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use a service.
Service provision includes the provision of any goods, facilities or services to the general public, with or without charge. Services include communication and information services and are not limited to buildings, although any part of a service which uses transport vehicles is excluded.
The 1995 Act was amended by the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 which introduces a duty on public authorities to promote disability equality to cover disabled people in every area of their work. The duty is not necessarily about alterations to buildings or adjustments for individuals.
The DDA 2005 amends Part 3 of the DDA to include new duties for private clubs who were previously exempt under the DDA 1995
Private clubs with 25 or more members are covered by the DDA in respect of their members, associates, guests, and prospective members and guests. It will be unlawful for a club to discriminate in the following ways:
These duties will be equivalent to the duties in the DDA relating to providers
of goods and services. The duty to make reasonable adjustments will be anticipatory
- that is, the club must anticipate the needs of disabled people and change
things in advance.
The duty to make reasonable adjustments can only be enforced by an individual
disabled person who has experienced discrimination. As suggested by the term
clubs will only ever be required to do what is reasonable and may take into
account factors like the resources of the club.
The Act prohibits discrimination against disabled people in the management,
sale or rental of premises (buildings or land).
The Act gave the Government powers to introduce regulations laying down new
access standards for taxis, buses and trains.
The provision of education is included within the Act's employment requirements,
but excluded from service provisions. However, non-educational activities on
educational premises are covered, and educational institutions must produce
statements and reports. Education is brought under the Act through the introduction
of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA). See section
8 Education.
The Act only covers disabled people who come within its definition of disabled,
i.e. someone with a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and
long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day to-day activities.
Physical impairments include sensory (visual or hearing) impairments.
The DDA 2005 extends this definition by removing the requirement that a mental illness must be 'clinically well-recognised' before it can count as an impairment for the purposes of the DDA. In addition, a person who has cancer, HIV infection or multiple sclerosis is now also deemed to have a disability from the point of diagnosis under the DDA 2005 rather than as before where the person had to wait until it had a substantial and long term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities.
The Act does not override or remove the need to comply with other statutory
duties.
The Act gives disabled people the right to challenge and seek redress for discriminatory
behaviour, through the County Courts or Industrial Tribunals. An advisory National
Disability Council established by the Act was replaced in April 2000 by a Disability
Rights Commission with statutory powers. The Commission will:
While employers may respond to employees' needs on an "ad hoc" basis,
the new law has extensive implications for the providers of services, goods
and facilities to the public, and those who design and maintain buildings from
which services are provided.
Service providers have a duty to remove or alter physical features which make
it impossible, or unreasonably difficult, for disabled people to use the services.
Physical features include those arising from the design or construction of buildings,
and the approach or access to, and egress from, premises.
In the event of an action brought by a disabled person, a court will take account
of the extent to which a service provider can demonstrate compliance with the
requirements of the Act and its associated regulations and codes of practice.
Good practice will include having a policy towards disabled customers, providing
disability awareness training, conducting access audits of buildings (and their
surroundings) and drawing up an action strategy to make necessary improvements
by the time regulations under the Act are in force.
It is not be sufficient for service providers to think they do not have a problem
because no disabled people use their services. Larger organisations, in particular,
are expected to take positive steps to identify any barriers which prevent disabled
people from knowing about, or attempting to use, services which they might otherwise
use.
New buildings should be built to current inclusive design standards. More difficulties
may be presented when seeking to adapt existing buildings, such as problems
of high building density, limited space and awkward levels. Physical works may
not be able to satisfy the Act's requirements in every case, and it may be necessary
to look at operational procedures and building management.
The scope of the Act's definition of disability accentuates the need to cater for a range of potential service users. For example, signs, lighting, auxiliary aids and other details and finishes will be important, as well as the main physical structures, in order to cater for the needs of visually or hearing impaired people, and those with limited mobility.
Extreme care should always be used were using the word 'comply' or 'compliance'. You cannot 'comply with the DDA' but you can 'comply with the requirements of the DDA'. There is no such thing as a 'DDA compliant' building. It is also worth highlighting that it is the employer, service provider, education provider, etc who must comply with the legislation, and not the building.
Architects, access consultants, access auditors, surveyors should be very careful when making recommendations to clients. You cannot advise clients that if they undertake certain work that they will then comply with the DDA. Architects, access consultants, access auditors and surveyors can and should be advising clients along the lines of "you have used your best endeavours when providing advice to enable them to comply with the requirements of the DDA".
New buildings can be designed to provide very good access for disabled people, based on current standards, design guidance, best practice and British Standards. This is all well and good, but without an effective management policy in place, a client will probably not be meeting his or her obligations under the DDA.
Audit reports should be highlighting that "compliance with the requirements of the DDA cannot be guaranteed". Furthermore, for those undertaking audit work it is useful to mention that "whilst the advice provided does not offer immunity from litigation under the DDA, it does present a case which shows that the instigator has taken reasonable measures to comply by commissioning a consultant, and acting upon that consultants advice".
The DDA 2005 introduces a duty on public authorities to promote disability equality to cover disabled people in every area of their work. The duty is not necessarily about alterations to buildings or adjustments for individuals.
There are both general duties and specific duties under the Disability Equality Duty. The general duty came into force on 4 December 2006. Primary schools in England have until 3 December 2007 to publish their Disability Equality Scheme and all schools in Wales must publish their schemes not later than 1 April 2007. The Secretaries of State, National Assembly in Wales and Scottish Ministers must produce their first report by December 2008.
The Disability Equality Duty for Scotland is in all key respects the same as the duty that applies in England and Wales, although there are some different arrangements in relation to education due to differences in other legislation.
A general duty under the act applies to 'any person certain of those functions which are functions of the public nature'. This is based on the Human Rights Act.
Most public bodies will have a general duty in addition to specific duties that set out the requirements for meeting the general duty including the requirements to produce a Disability Equality Scheme. Specific duties only apply to listed bodies which includes central government, education organisations, local government, government, health and inspection bodies.
Duties will include the need to undertake disability equality training and the undertaking of impact assessments on policies and practices in relation to equality for disabled people.
Listed bodies have the following specific duties:
1. Publish a Disability Equality Scheme which should include an Action Plan
2. Involve disabled people and access groups in producing the scheme and Action
Plan
3. Demonstrate they have taken action in the scheme and achieved appropriate
outcomes. Simply producing a Disability Equality Scheme is not sufficient as
the documents must be a live document which is acted upon.
4. Report on progress
5. Review and revise the scheme, which should be a living document.
Duties apply to
Public authorities to which the equality duty applies and which are not detailed
within the legislation are: government departments and executive agencies, ministers,
local authorities, governing bodies of schools, NHS trusts and boards, police
and fire authorities, Crown Prosecution Service, inspection and audit bodies
and certain publicly funded museums.
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