Disability Advice Project
Access Auditing
The Disability Advice Project is an independent charity that provides access auditing and training services to help businesses, local authorities, the Welsh Tourist Board and other operators of public sites and buildings to create a user accessible environment for their goods and/or services.
Even if social advantages are disregarded, commercial
reasons alone should be sufficient motivation to create an inclusive environment.
Accessible business is good business. There are approximately between
10-11 million disabled people in the UK who have an annual spending power
of £50 billion without taking into account their friends and families
who will be influenced by their choices. If your services are not accessible,
there could be further adverse influences on profits as there is ultimately
the potential of financial penalties. Many people are unaware of the implications
of The Disability Discrimination Act.
The DDA 1995 Part III/2004 means that since 1st October 2004 businesses
and organisations, that provide services to the public, whether charged
for or free, need to remove or alter a physical feature, or provide a
reasonable means of avoiding the physical feature, to ensure disabled
people receive a fair service.
It is important to note the above dates – the Act was passed in 1995 and has been enforced since October 2004. Service providers would have had 9 years to comply with the Act and since October 2004 a disabled person can take legal action against a service provider if they believe they are being discriminated against by being offered inaccessible (or second-rate) access to goods and/or other services. You therefore need to act now.
The first step in trying to ensure compliance with the DDA and avoiding possible expensive legal liability is to invest in an Access Audit of your building or public site. A DAP Access Audit can identify and recommend solutions to these physical barriers using the relevant British Standards. The audit will also contain recommendations to staff, as many of these barriers can be overcome by efficient building maintenance and relevant staff training to ensure goods and services are accessible and remain so.
