The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 has been set out to end the discrimination faced by many disabled people. The original Act has been extended and revised under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 giving equal rights for disabled people in employment, education, plus access to goods, services and other facilities.

Under Sections 21(2)(a), (b) and (c)) it has:

• made it unlawful to discriminate against disabled persons in connection with
  • employment,
  • the provision of goods, facilities and services; or
  • the disposal or management of premises;
• made provision about the employment of disabled persons; and
• established a National Disability Council.

The milestone for this undertaking was 1 October 2004 after which all physical features making it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled persons to make use of such a service, imposed duty on the provider of that service to take such steps as it is reasonable, in all the circumstances of the case, for him to have to take in order to

• remove the feature;
• alter it so that it no longer has that effect;
• provide a reasonable means of avoiding the feature; or
• provide a reasonable alternative method of making the service in question available to disabled persons.

It should be remembered that the DDA relates to the service rather than the premises and consequently for certain services (e.g. financial advisor or hairdresser) it is possible to overcome a physical feature by providing home visits. However, as the DDA also encompasses employment provision, any potential employee will still require access.

The May 2004 edition of Approved Document M of the Building Regulations for England & Wales offers some guidance (page 7).

Duties In The Employment Field

Up until 30 September 2004, Section 6 of the DDA set a duty to make reasonable adjustments for those employers with 15 or more employees although there was an exemption provided by Regulation 8 of the Disability Discrimination (Employment) Regulations 1996 (SI 1996 / 1456) whereby it was not required to alter any physical characteristic of a building which had been adopted to satisfy Part M of the Building Regulations at the time that the work was undertaken.

From 1 October2004, the exemption under Regulation 8 ceased to apply with some changes to the duty to make reasonable adjustments extended to all employers irrespective of company size.

Employers are recommended to refer to Sections 4A, 4B(5), 4B(6), 4E, 6B, 7B, 7D, 14, 14B, 14D and 16A(5) of the DDA as amended by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/1673).

Duties of providers of services to the public

Up until 30 September 2004 there was absolutely no duty on service providers to make reasonable adjustments to physical features of premises.

From 1 October 2004, the duty to make reasonable adjustments set out in Sections 21(2)(a), (b) and (c)has been enforced for all service providers irrespective of their company size although again there was an exemption provided by Regulation 3 of the Disability Discrimination (Providers of Services) (Adjustments of Premises) Regulations 2001 (SI 2001 / 3253) providing that work undertaken in accordance with Approved Document M of the Building Regulations for England & Wales 1992 or 1999 editions would not need to make adjustments to features if 10 years or less had passed since they had been constructed or installed.

Consequently, the only buildings that should currently be exempt are those worked on less than 10 years ago under the 1992 or 1999 Regulations.

It is important to bear in mind that whilst each of the member states of the UK have their own Building Regulations, the DDA is enforceable across the entire UK.

If you would like to read the document for yourself it can be found via the website for the Office of Public Sector Information www.opsi.gov.uk