Disability Discrimination Act Compliance.

In our own company we have, as part of our management structure, persons suffering from severe physical disabilities. As such we are more than aware of how little effort many companies, from corner shops to large corporations, have made to comply with the regulations to ensure disabled people have the same rights of access to public buildings and services as the able bodied.

It is now unlawful to discriminate against disabled people by:

  • Refusing to provide a service without justification;
  • Providing a service to a lesser standard without justification;
  • Providing a service on worse terms without justification;
  • Failing to make reasonable adjustments to the way services are provided for disabled people;

Debenhams was recently fined £50,000 for failing to comply with the act. The maximum sentence under the legislation is £50,000 per incident per location to a maximum of 10% of total company turnover.

Our operatives can inspect your site, prepare a written report identifying the steps which companies or individuals should take to ensure compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), and thus reduce the threat of potential heavy fines.

Disabled shoppers in the UK have a disposable annual income in excess of £80billion. Can your company afford to turn away such business and risk the negative publicity that a conviction under the DDA could bring with it?

The courts and tribunals generally have little sympathy with transgressors, since the government of the time in 1994 allowed a ten year lead in to the Act, to allow reasonable adjustments and modifications to be made. This concession ran out in October 2005, and with it any period of grace, therefore removing any excuses for non-compliance. Such excuses or claims of ignorance will now simply not wash with enforcement authorities, who are coming down very hard on all transgressors. Every company, trader, authority or commercial entity, large or small, faces potentially crippling penalties for ignoring their obligations to employees, customers, or even visitors, under this Act.