The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)
...the legislative background...
The DDA, introduced in 1995, applies to all businesses and organisations providing a service to the public regardless of their size or whether the service is free or paid for.
To comply with the Act, a service provider may have to:
1. Change a practice, policy or procedure which makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of services.
2. Take reasonable steps to provide auxiliary aids or services if it would enable or make it easier for disabled people to make use of the services which it offers to the public.
3. Take reasonable measures to remove or alter physical features that are barriers to service delivery or provide a reasonable alternative method of making services available.
1. Changes to practice, policy or procedures
Practices, policies and procedures relate to the way in which a service provider operates their business or provides services. Discriminatory examples of this may include:
- Requiring a higher deposit or booking fee because a person has a disability.
- A requirement or strongly worded suggestion that wheelchair users or persons with a learning disability visit an attraction on specific days or at specific times.
- Directing a person with a learning disability or facial disfigurement to a restaurant table away from other patrons.
2. Providing auxiliary aids or services
A service provider must take reasonable steps to provide auxiliary aids or services if this would enable or make it easier for disabled people to make use of any services which it offers to the public. In the context of tourism businesses this might include:
- Large print menus, wine lists, instructions or directions.
- Vibrating pillows or flashing lights linked to a fire alarm to warn a guest with a hearing or visual impairment.
- Hearing loops to amplify speech to a person with a hearing aid.
- Audio tapes or digitally recorded information; for example, in a museum, historic house or garden.
- TVs with subtitles for the hard of hearing.
- Wheelchairs for the frail and less mobile.
- Bed raisers to increase the height of a low bed.
- Portable ramps to aid access into buildings with steps.
- Offering assistance to select items off a shelf and carry to the cash desk.
- Offering assistance to carry a tray to a table.
- Providing a set of easy-grip cutlery for someone with limited grip.
Most of these aids and services are low cost solutions to everyday situations.
3. Removing or altering physical barriers
Service providers must take reasonable measures to remove or alter physical features that are barriers to service delivery or provide a reasonable alternative method of making services available. Physical features arise from a building's design or construction and include:
- The approach to, exit from or access to a building, i.e. steps, steep ramps, narrow doors, heavy doors, poor illumination, rough surfaced pathway and bollards
- Any fixtures, fittings, furnishings and furniture, i.e. dining tables that prevent wheelchair users from sitting comfortably, high reception counters, blocked passages, thick doormats, highly polished wall and floor surfaces.
- Any other physical element on the premises, i.e. external steps, gravel paths, turnstiles, cattle-grids, overhanging branches and inaccessible outdoor furniture.
Where the removal or alteration of a physical barrier is not possible or is unreasonable in the circumstances, service providers must take reasonable steps to provide the service by an alternative method. For example:
- Where the bar in a hotel is down steps and a waiter service is not usually provided, it would probably be reasonable to provide a person who cannot manage the steps with waiter or bar service in a lounge or reception area.
- If the main entrance to a hotel or visitor attraction is not accessible to wheelchair users but a side entrance is, directing wheelchair users to the side entrance may be a reasonable alternative. However, this provision may be considered discriminatory if the barrier, the steps at the front entrance, can be modified at reasonable cost and with minimum disruption.
- A gift shop has goods displayed on shelves separated by narrow aisles. Because of the narrow aisles the goods are not easily accessible to wheelchair users and others with mobility impairments. Therefore, to provide a service to disabled customers it may be reasonable to offer staff assistance to locate goods and bring them to the cash till.
To help you to adhere to the DDA, we have produced Creating Accessible Tourism. The two guides, one each for attractions and accommodation providers, are designed to help you identify and, where necessary, remove hazards and barriers for disabled visitors cost- effectively.
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More Information
- Disability Rights Commission - aims for "a society where all disabled people can participate fully as equal citizens"
- Tourism for All - provides information, expertise and support to and for the tourism and hospitality industries