The Disability Discrimination Act part 3 has now been law since October 2004. The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) are receiving up to 500.000 calls of potential discrimination per year.
It is appreciated that hotels often have difficulty complying to the act, however, there are solutions to the problems.
Why act now over disabled access?
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 introduced a raft of new legislation aimed at ending the discrimination that many disabled people face in accessing many hotels goods and services. Some service providers view the DDA as simply imposing extra costs and legal obligations. If you’re nodding in agreement, please ask yourself whether you have looked properly at the business case for making your goods and services more accessible as well as meeting your legal obligations.
The Business Case.
It's important not to lose sight of the fact that the DDA is focused on increasing disabled access and safer egress to all services and facilities. Approximately 10 million people in the UK are classed as disabled under the DDA, that’s a sixth of the UK’s population. Some disabilities are more common in the older age groups, with almost 70% of disabled adults aged over 60. Nearly 75% of the Nation’s wealth is held by the over 50s who have an estimated annual income of £184bn.
The DRC suggests that businesses that are seen to address their issues of access through a DDA audit should be seen as attempting to meet those needs. Ignoring those needs could have a reverse effect.
Mind your own business.
Disability Discrimination laws now protects those with vision and hearing impairments, learning difficulties, speech impediments etc etc. In short the duties under the DDA includes all disabilities from wheelchair users to asthma suffers. Understanding and meeting all of these needs is a very specialised area. Being able to produce a accessibility report of your services shows your intention to comply, even if you are currently unable to meet those requirements (showing you are taking the act seriously) The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) will take this into account should a case of discrimination be brought against your company or hotel.
In short, stop and think of how assisting disabled people will in turn increase your turnover. please do not wait for a disabled person to have to force you to address your access issues under the DDA.
You can print this article by clicking the printer icon at the top this of page.
Ask, answer questions or add more facts concerning "Should UK Hotels be afraid of the DDA?" below. Your comment will NOT show up right away, it will be sent for approval before it will appear here. Please bookmark this page so you can check back for possible replies and answers to your questions.
Support Disabled World by linking to this article - Should UK Hotels be afraid of the DDA?
<a href=http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/article_326.shtml>Should UK Hotels be afraid of the DDA?</a>
This article is general information ONLY and is NOT a substitute for medical advice or treatment
Ask, answer questions or add more facts concerning "Should UK Hotels be afraid of the DDA?" below.