The UK Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) came into effect in December 1996 and brought in measures to prevent discrimination against disabled people.  The DDA applies to all organisations, regardless of industry sector.  There are many different parts to the DDA but those commonly affecting organisations are:

• Part II – which aims to prevent discrimination against employees by ensuring that a disabled employee can carry out their job without ‘substantial disadvantage’
• Part III – which aims to ensure that disabled people have equal access to products and services.

On 1st October 2004, further duties came into force that require service providers to ensure that physical features of their premises are not making their services impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use.  Failure to make reasonable adjustments may mean that organisations are discriminating against disabled people.  Yet what does ‘reasonable adjustments’ mean and what exactly do organisations need to put in place?

Who has rights under the Act?

An adult or child has protection from discrimination under the Act if he or she is a disabled person.

Definition of ‘disability’

Part I of the DDA defines a disability as ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out day-to-day activities’.  To affect day-to-day activities an effect must be in one of the following broad categories:

• Mobility
• Manual dexterity
• Physical co-ordination
• Continence
• Lifting, carrying or moving objects
• Speech, hearing or eyesight
• Memory, concentration, learning or understanding
• Recognition of physical danger.

Where the DDA applies

The DDA applies to the whole of the UK, including Northern Ireland.  The DDA does not apply to the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, or to employment or services provided outside the UK.

Part II – Employer’s duties

Part II applies to all organisations, regardless of the employment sector.  Under Part II of the DDA employers should not discriminate against disabled people.  Discrimination may occur where an employer:

• Treats the disabled employee less favourably than a non-disabled employee
• Does not comply with the requirement to make reasonable adjustments in order to prevent an arrangement or physical feature having a discriminatory effect against employees with disabilities.

Under the employment part of the DDA, the duty of provision of a reasonable adjustment is triggered when an individual disabled person applies for a job, is employed or it becomes apparent that an existing employee requires some form of adjustment.

This duty applies during employment and recruitment, for example, selection and interview procedures and the arrangements for using premises for such procedures, job offers, contractual arrangements and working conditions.

What adjustments might an employer have to make?

The DDA gives a number of examples of steps which employers may have to take, if it is reasonable for them to do so in all circumstances of the case.  Steps other than those listed here, or a combination of steps, will sometimes have to be taken:

• Making adjustments to premises
• Allocating some of the disabled person’s duties to another person
• Transferring the person to fill an existing vacancy
• Altering the person’s working hours
• Assigning the person to a different place of work
• Allowing the person to be absent during working hours for rehabilitation, assessment or treatment
• Acquiring special equipment or modifying existing equipment
• Modifying instructions or reference manuals
• Providing a reader or interpreter
• Providing supervision.

What ‘physical features’ and ‘arrangements’ are covered by the DDA?

Physical features include (whether temporary or permanent):

• Anything on the premises arising from a building’s design or construction or from an approach to, exit from or access to such a building
• Fixtures, fittings, furnishings, furniture, equipment or materials
• Any other physical element or quality of land in the premises.

The duty applies to arrangements for determining to whom employment should be offered and any terms or conditions on which employment, promotion, transfer, training or any other benefit is offered.  The duty applies in recruitment as well as employment. Potential reasonable adjustments are similar to in the list in Part II.

Part III – Service provision

A service provider is anyone who provides goods, facilities and services to the general public, whether paid for or free.  Under Part III of the DDA, service providers have a legal duty to take reasonable steps to make these services available to disabled people.  They should not discriminate by:

• Refusing to provide a service
• Providing a service of a lower standard or in a worse manner
• Providing a service on less favourable terms than they would to service users without a disability
• Failing to comply with the duty to make reasonable adjustments to a physical feature of their premises that makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to make use of the service.

What adjustments might a service provider have to make?

Examples of reasonable adjustments include:

• Changing practices, policies and procedures that make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to use a service (for example, a video rental shop normally offers membership only to people who can provide a driving licence as proof of their identity – this automatically excludes some disabled people from joining, so the shop would be required to accept an alternative form of identification)
• Providing auxiliary aids and services (such as the provision of information on audio tape, a sign language interpreter, extra assistance, or a temporary ramp)
• Removing a physical feature that makes a service impossible or unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to access
• Altering the physical feature so that it no longer has a discriminatory effect
• Providing a reasonable means of avoiding the physical feature (for example, in a building whose services are accessed by stairs - allowing a wheelchair user to use an entrance normally used by staff which is fully accessible)
• Providing the service by a reasonable alternative method (for example, offering a telephone or internet service).

What should organisations do to ensure they do not discriminate?

Building access audits

A useful starting point is to arrange for an access audit of the premises to be conducted.  This involves a survey of the building and facilities to identify its accessibility and ease of use by disabled people.  It focuses on a number of different issues around physical access, such as physical barriers, signage, internal environment, auxiliary aids, staff training and written information.  Conducting an access audit can identify barriers and hazards to people with disabilities that may need to be changed to prevent discrimination, under the requirements of the DDA.

Make reasonable adjustments

Once barriers and hazards have been identified, reasonable adjustments should be made to any physical features of the premises that cause a substantial disadvantage to the disabled person compared with a non-disabled person or make services impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use.

The DDA was not designed to put organisations out of business.  It requires employers and service providers to take such steps as are reasonable in all the circumstances of the case.  Factors that may have a bearing on whether or not it is reasonable to make a particular adjustment include:

• The effectiveness of the adjustment in preventing the disadvantage
• The practicability of the adjustment
• The financial and other costs of the adjustment and the disruption caused
• The extent of the employer’s or service provider’s financial or other resources.

Seek expert guidance from System Concepts

The DDA does not require organisations to adopt one particular way of meeting its obligations to employees and service users.  The focus of the DDA is on results.  The aim is to make services accessible to disabled people or to ensure that a disabled employee can carry out their job without substantial disadvantage.  Discriminating against disabled people is illegal and not only runs the risk of litigation it also risks damaging employee and customer confidence and trust.  Taking positive steps to improve accessibility mitigates these risks and can create real commercial benefit.

System Concepts works extensively in the field of accessibility, providing practical solutions to many private and public sector organisations.  System Concepts provides a range of services to help organisations identify their current level of compliance and makes pragmatic, cost-effective recommendations for any necessary changes to ensure the requirements of the DDA are met.  These services include conducting access audits to evaluate the accessibility of services and buildings for use by service users and employees with disabilities, as well as developing and delivering presentations and staff training seminars to introduce organisations to the requirements of the DDA.
If you would like more information on access auditing, practical solutions to disability issues or training, please contact Laura Peebles on 020 7240 3388 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it