What is a Disability Access Audit?

Through the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act over the past decade, providers of services, shops and businesses have a duty to act reasonably in regards to the provision of goods and services to the disabled population, making adjustments where required.

Inclusion specialises in providing consultation and guidance in how to best to meet these duties by providing a range of DDA services including Access Audits, Access plans and a range of DDA equipment but what exactly is the DDA and why would you want to spend money on an access audit?

Disability Discrimination Act

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) is aimed at addressing the obstacles which many disabled people experience in areas such as employment, access to goods and services, transport and education.

The 3 main sections which relate to you are:

Part 2 – Employers:

An employer has a duty to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that a potential disabled member of staff is not placed at substantial disadvantage compared to others.

Part 3 – Access to goods and services:

Anyone providing a service to the general public has a duty to make reasonable adjustments to their property, business or service to anticipate the needs of the disabled population.

Part 4 – Education:

Education providers are now required to make “reasonable adjustments” for disabled pupils and staff. This duty covers all areas of education including schools, colleges & universities.

The DDA applies to anyone who provides a service to the general public – whether it is a small corner shop, local pub, library, youth service, care home or large multinational corporation. It stipulates only that you act reasonably – this means taking into account issues such as finance, size and nature of business. There are usually various options when attempting to act reasonably and it will often be cheaper than you may think but how can you be sure you are meeting your duties without spending a small fortune?

An excellent tool to help you in the process of creating an inclusive service, meeting your DDA responsibilities whilst also saving you potentially vast amounts of money is a Disability or DDA Access Audit. An access audit by a DDA specialist access auditor will ensure that you are aware of all of your responsibilities and options under the Disability Discrimination Act. In essence, a disability access audit (DDA audit or assessment) maps a journey through your business, as taken by a disabled person, for example someone with a mobility or sensory impairment. It examines the accessibility of your service, identifies barriers, measures usability and provides options for improvement. It also takes into account the nature of your business and your budget, whilst looking at all aspects of the environment, property and service.

By adopting an inclusive design philosophy you benefit from improved customer and staff satisfaction and loyalty; increased sales; and greater profitability. Meeting your duties under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 UK (DDA) should not only benefit your customers and staff but also your business, events such as the London Paralympics should be potential goldmines that an accessible service can easily tap into.

• A disability access audit (DDA audit) will involve an initial meeting or discussion in order for us to tailor our service to meet your specific requirements with regard to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
• We then review your building plans and/or walk through your company looking at and measuring the usability of all aspects of the environment, property and service.
• Finally, we provide a full DDA audit report and summary detailing strengths, weaknesses and options for improvement accompanied by ongoing question and answer sessions as required.

The Access Audit Report records the building, and establishes how well that building performs in terms of access and ease of use by a wide range of potential users. It identifies good and bad practice, design and layout in regard to disabled access, identifying obstacles to people with mobility and sensory impairments. In addition, the audit report will then seek to find solutions to access problems, with recommendations and relative costings.

For those on a tight budget many companies also offer a Disability access audit (DDA audit) ‘walk and talk’ service. This is a brief walk through your service highlighting issues and solutions, resulting in a short summary.

Remember that at least 1 in 4 customers either has or is close to someone with a disability, that’s nearly a quarter of your potential service users whom you could be isolating. Inclusion’s disability access auditing and disability discrimination act (DDA) consultation services will ensure you are well positioned to tap into this vast potential revenue and workforce.

Inclusion offers a free telephone and email advisory service regarding the Disability Discrimination Act UK 1995 (DDA) – visit our website http://www.inclusion.me.uk for details about how we may be able to help your business or ring 07812034533.