The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA)
- What does it mean?
- What does "discriminate" mean?
- How does this affect businesses?
- What if an alteration costs too much?
- What is "reasonable"?
- Are listed buildings exempt?
- What if businesses have no disabled customers or employees?
- What are the risks of doing nothing?
- What should you do next?
- What is an Access Audit?
- What else should you take in to account?
- What are the advantages of compliancy with the DDA?
What should you do next?
Do not wait until a disabled person cannot use your facility/premises/service.
You need to consider the following issues relating to the service you provide:
- The accessibility and use of your premises and services. How might this be improved?
- Making reasonable adjustments to the physical access as a priority in order to comply with the regulations which came in to force on 1 October 2004. How do you comply?
- The needs of disabled people may provide an opportunity for economic gain from the 10 million disabled consumers in the UK: a significant consumer market. What have you got to offer them?
Because most barriers can be easily and inexpensively removed it is vital to clearly establish low cost and reasonable initiatives that avoid unnecessary expenditure on extravagant provisions.
In recent research by the Disability Rights Commission, it was found that despite one in ten businesses stating that they would prefer not to have to make their premises accessible for disabled people, eight out of ten predicted a positive rise in profits after improving access for disabled people.
Businesses need to know that reasonable adjustments are all that is required by the DDA. An Access Audit will take in to account your business turn-over and make suggestions that are reasonable to you and your business.
Next: What is an Access Audit?
