Survey Reveals Legislation Not Working «

Survey Reveals Legislation Not Working 21. 09. 2009

A recent survey conducted by BBC Wales and Disability Wales has found that legislation on access for the disabled has failed to deliver its promise, five years after it was introduced.

Back in 2004 the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) was amended with a new clause that effectively placed a duty on public access and retail outlets to ensure the disabled were able to access the premises and where possible reasonable measures and adjustments should be made to ensure this. Premises that came under close scrutiny were such public places such libraries, banks, restaurants, and post offices, to name just a few.

The focus of the report and survey was predominantly Wales where a number of disabled people conducted the study under the guidance of Disability Wales and Radio BBC Wales. As part of the survey they carried out a number of exercises to see if access was possible or had been improved in many public access areas.

Their conclusions were a little disappointing, finding in summary that many high street organisations were clearly missing out to the more modern and ever popular out of town retail parks where modern access aids such as platform lifts and passengers lifts were very much common place.

There were clear disappointments that some five years on form the introduction of the legislation relatively little change had occurred in the very places that bought about the required changes. In many cases there was no requirement to outlay great volumes of capital on the more expensive elements of assistance such as electronic platform lifts, but simple ramps in many cases could very easily have made a very big impact.

The formal report on the survey is due to be published shortly.

Speak to Public Access about any of our services including Platform Lifts, Passenger Lifts, Stair Lifts, Goods lifts or Door Automation.

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