DDA Compliance
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 aims to end the discrimination that many disabled people face. This Act gives disabled people rights in the areas of:
employment
education
access to goods, facilities and services
buying or renting land or property
In April 2005 a new Disability Discrimination Act was passed by Parliament, which amends or extends existing provisions in the DDA 1995, including:
making it unlawful for operators of transport vehicles to discriminate against disabled people
making it easier for disabled people to rent property and for tenants to make disability-related adaptations
making sure that private clubs with 25 or more members cannot keep disabled people out, just because they have a disability
extending protection to cover people who have HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis from the moment they are diagnosed
ensuring that discrimination law covers all the activities of the public sector
requiring public bodies to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people
Which service providers are covered by the DDA?
Under the DDA, 'service providers' are most companies or organisations that offer goods, facilities or services in the UK to the public. It does not matter whether the services are free or paid for. This includes any company, partnership, sole trader or similar in the following categories:
banks, building societies and insurance companies
health services, including hospitals, GPs, dentists and opticians
courts, solicitors, and advice and information services
local and central government services
estate agents and private landlords
accommodation agents, councils and housing associations
property developers, management agencies, investment companies and institutions
cinemas, theatres, museums, art galleries and libraries
railway and bus stations, air and sea ports and travel agents
shops, restaurants, pubs and nightclubs
mail order or telephone order businesses
hotels, hostels and guesthouses
telecommunications and broadcasting services
organisations that offer goods and services through the web
churches, mosques, synagogues and other places of worship
sports centres, parks and other leisure facilities
private and voluntary sector providers of further and higher education
schools, colleges and universities when they provide services to the public, for example, parents' evenings, fundraising activities and conference facilities
private, voluntary and statutory providers of nursery education that are not established as schools, including accredited childminders
students’ unions.
How the DDA affects you
Under the DDA, it is unlawful for a service provider to treat you less favourably than it would treat a hearing customer or a customer with a different disability. The DDA says there are four types of unlawful discrimination:
Refusing or deliberately failing to serve you because of your deafness or hearing loss. For example, refusing to allow you and your deaf friends into a pub or refusing to take a call via RNID Typetalk, the national telephone relay service in the UK.
Offering a lower standard of service or providing a service in a worse manner, such as asking you to wait to be served when a hearing person would not have to wait. A service provider cannot discriminate by being offhand or rude.
Providing a service on worse terms, such as asking you for a bigger deposit when you are booking a holiday because the travel company thinks, for no good reason, that you are more likely to cancel your holiday because you are deaf.
Not making 'reasonable adjustments' if this is necessary to enable you to use the service fully. For example, if a hospital does not provide you with a BSL/English interpreter for a medical appointment then this means they have not made a reasonable adjustment. BSL stands for British Sign Language.
What are reasonable adjustments?
If disabled customers find it 'impossible or unreasonably difficult' to gain access to your goods, services or facilities, then service providers may have to change the way they provide those goods, services or facilities. The DDA refers to these changes as 'reasonable adjustments'.
Reasonable adjustments include:
changing the way a service is provided – practices, policies or procedures
providing an additional aid or service if this will help or enable someone to access the service – for example, an induction loop or communication support
providing the service in an alternative way
removing or altering physical features, such as doors, lighting or glass screens, if these create barriers to accessing the service.
