Disability Discrimination Act 1995 - What constitutes a reasonable adjustment?

The DDA definition of “reasonable” relating to the final duty of Part III of the DDA has not yet been case tested under UK law. However, it is generally the view of legal authorities that action planning and making physical adjustments over time constitutes a reasoned approach. It therefore follows that an Audit carried out by a competent auditor or consultant constitutes ‘reasonable’.
(Photo credit: Renzo Mazzolini,
reproduced courtesy of Capability Scotland)

While there is a duty upon service providers to make adjustments to their premises, the Act concentrates on results and outcomes, and the services provided by the operator of the buildings rather than focusing on physical adjustments. This is particularly helpful for small service providers who can concentrate on creative but inexpensive solutions.

‘Reasonable adjustments‘ should take into account the following:

1. Convenience
Features which should be planned to be altered, removed or avoided should be:

a) Those features which are inaccessible to users of the building.

b) Those which make the building usable, but only through less favourable treatment that may be unreasonable.

2. Health & Safety
Features which pose a Health & Safety problem to disabled users are those which:

a) May prevent the safe evacuation of a visitor from the building, eg confusing spaces or poor signage, trip hazards or tight escape routes.

b) May potentially prevent a person with a disability from safely using a facility, eg steep ramps which do not have landings or which ramp down to dangerous routes or activities, projections in access routes which may not be detected by the normal eye.

c) May cause bodily impact, tripping or falling.

d) May put a person with a disability in a feeling of unreasonable insecurity, eg children and vulnerable adults.

The DDA is not enforceable unless a person feels that he or she has been discriminated against. In general, people with a disability will not concentrate on a feature if the overall means to accessing the service is reasonably met.

Also, the Act does not state that the service should be usable without assisted access. In fact, the Act refers to a Code of Practice that sets out an ethos behind meeting the requirements of the Act and if assisted access is effective in order to overcome a barrier then this may in some cases be deemed acceptable.

Also meeting the requirements of the Act depends on the resources available to the service provider and the circumstances may vary according to the type of services being provided.

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