Disabled access to goods, services and facilities

The duty on service providers

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) made it unlawful for service providers to discriminate against disabled people in certain circumstances. From 1 October 2004 service providers had to take reasonable steps to remove, alter or provide a reasonable means of avoiding, a physical feature which made it impossible or reasonably difficult for disabled people to use a service.

On 1 October 2010, the Equality Act 2010 (EA) replaced most of the DDA). The duty on providers of goods, services and facilities was replaced with a duty to make reasonable adjustments in order to avoid a disabled person being placed at a “substantial disadvantage” compared with non-disabled people when accessing services and facilities.

The EA does not prescribe what a reasonable adjustment might be – this is to be determined by the particular circumstances in each case. 

Enforcing the duty

The person who believes they have experienced disability discrimination as a result of not being able to access a (non-transport related) good, service or facility is, as a general rule, responsible taking enforcement action via the courts against the provider. Local authorities do not have an enforcement role in this context.