The
Disability Discrimination Act - comply or miss out on a multi-million
pound market!
Carrot or stick? whichever works for you, read on to make sure
you're up to date and not missing out
Carrot or Stick? The stick...
Don’t be put off by the negative tone of the current poster
campaign which threatens legal action against those businesses
who fail to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)
which is now in full force. Perhaps the most important aspect of
the Act to understand are two simple words: “being reasonable”.
The Act states that you must make “reasonable efforts and
adjustments” to make your service accessible to disabled
people.
So what is reasonable?
Good question. This is one of the main difficulties towards the
practical application of the Act. What is often reasonable for
say a local council to provide might be different to what is
expected from a wine bar or museum.
Making reasonable adjustments might include making physical changes
such as adding a ramp but it may also involve changing the way
you serve some one or ensuring staff have the right attitude.
You need to
focus on service provision and the people you are serving rather
than their disability or the environment in which
you operate. Here are some examples of what you might need to do.
Let’s say you have a retail unit which is difficult to adapt
for wheelchair access. One solution might be to install a bell
for service, so that the customer could still shop, but with a
staff member on hand to advise on a selection of retail items and
assist the customer.
Another aspect involves simply understanding and anticipating
the needs of customers. For example, if visitors have to queue
to come into your attraction, is there a way that you can make
people with disabilities more comfortable? Making your staff aware
would be a good place to start.
The Act does not require you to make adjustments if they would
have the effect of fundamentally altering the service you provide.
The reasonableness of an adjusted service will also be defined
by the speed at which you can provide it and any extra cost there
might be.
Work with your customers and ask them about their needs. It could
be as simple as using a pad and pencil to communicate with a profoundly
deaf person. For further information visit www.disability.gov.uk
Mary Tebje
Carrot or stick? The carrot
Mary’s
preceding article was the stick, explaining what the law says
you should do in order to comply. Here’s the
carrot!
There
are 9 million disabled people in the UK alone. That’s
a lot of people, and a market well worth targeting. But the market
is even bigger than that. Disabled people don’t travel alone!
There are an additional 8.5 million people who want/need to travel
with their disabled friends and relatives. So if you don’t
make provision for people who are disabled, you’re discounting
their friends & relatives too. And whatever provision you make
for disabled people is likely to benefit others too - whether it's
a ramp that parents with prams will also appreciate or larger print
brochures that everyone can read.
There’s often an assumption that disabled people don’t
have any money and are therefore not an important target market.
In fact 20% of the working population are disabled in some way
and approximately 30% of all people over the age of 50. These are
people who may only recently have become disabled and therefore
have had all their working lives to accumulate wealth. Develop
your services and actively promote to disabled people and you’re
tapping into an annual spending power of £40 billion – and
that’s just in the UK. This is not a niche market!
Not all disabled
people are wheelchair bound. A disabled person is someone with: "a physical or mental impairment which has
a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his/her ability to
carry out normal day-to-day activities." Not all disabilities
are physical.
If
you don't want to miss out on this essential market,
download our free brief guide to promoting
to disabled people and where to find more information.
Susan Briggs
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