Don't panic. That's the first thing to remember if you are called on to carry out a personal risk assessment for a disabled worker.

The second thing is that the five steps to risk assessment - identify the hazard, decide who might be harmed and how, pinpoint risks and precautions, record your findings and implement them, and review and adjust as necessary - will serve you well.

Your objective will be to carry out a standard risk assessment as you would for any other worker and then determine what reasonable adjustments need to be made. This is a view shared by the Disability Rights Commission and the HSE.

When you undertake a personal risk assessment for a disabled worker, you need to determine what extra help is needed and what reasonable adjustments can be made.

It's important to remember that the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) is a civil law intended to protect disabled people from discrimination at work, and is secondary to health and safety legislation which is intended to protect people's health and safety from risks arising from work activities.

This means that in adjusting work and the workplace to accommodate disability, you can't allow the person to breach their common law duty; for example, to excuse them from wearing protective boots because they suffer from a foot condition.

But at the same time you want to avoid taking a paternalistic view. When undertaking a risk assessment, you need to involve the worker. If they are not consulted, they may be resentful.

Never start from the point of assuming that the disabled person is the hazard, simply because they are disabled; if you do, you will discriminate against them.

The five-step risk assessment process is the backbone of your assessment, but for disabled workers, taking into account other factors will help. To the existing five stages we can add the "four essential questions" (or 4EQ for short).

• How does the worker get to and from the workstation? (In some cases, how does the worker get to and from work?)
• What are their daily requirements (increased use of toilet, rest room, do they have a guide dog)?
• What assistive technology would they find helpful?
• Do they have a personal emergency evacuation plan?

Following on from this, you can work with  the disabled person to identify if local workplace hazards - those around their workstation or department - will be more problematic for them because of their disability, then widen your scope to the broader work environment and other facilities provided by the employer, such as staff areas and catering facilities.

The following are examples of accommodating workers with different disabilities.

The stores manager

Daniel works as a stores manager for a company that makes doors. He suffers from a mobility impairment; to get around he uses a manual wheelchair.

Daniel's work is mainly computer based, so you carry out a display-screen equipment (DSE) risk assessment. This shows that the wheelchair is difficult to manoeuvre to and from the desk without taking the armrests off.

You adjust the reach requirements by bringing items closer to the worktop and you provide Daniel with a cordless phone he can answer when he is away from his desk checking stock.

Due to Daniel's lack of mobility, the route from his car to the workplace is assessed, and to aid mobility you suggest that he uses a battery-powered chair.

Daniel reveals that he has to go to the toilet a lot as his condition affects his bladder. You look at the route to the toilet and suggest that an accessible toilet, though not essential, is advisable, because Daniel's condition is likely to deteriorate. You involve Daniel in all stages of the assessment.

Help with all of these adaptations is available from the government's Access to Work programme (see Improved access, below).

The council EHO

Dave lost his right arm in an accident. He is an environmental health officer (EHO) and his job involves investigating rubbish left on the streets. He also spends time in the office on administration, general casework and report writing.

Since the accident he has been experiencing problems in both areas. Your DSE assessment reveals that Dave has difficulty writing, using the phone and using a computer. To resolve this you supply him with voice-activated software and two days' training. Adding a switching box allows the headset that came with the voice-activated software to double up for phone use.

Dave is issued with a voice recorder to use when he is out and about. He can download the recordings to the computer as voice files, which can be formatted by the voice-activated software.

When out on the streets, Dave uses a prosthetic arm, but has had problems putting protective gloves on.

He also has to open black bin liners to inspect the rubbish, but doesn't want to use a knife in case it is snatched and used against him. You locate special protective gloves for the prosthetic arm that can be wiped easily and provide a safety knife.

The teacher

Rosie is a teacher. She has multiple sclerosis (MS) and uveitis (a condition where bright day or night-light can result in serious discomfort to the sufferer). Rosie is a complex case as she suffers from a physical, sensory and cognitive impairment but, when you unravel the problems she faces, there are ways to accommodate most of her needs.

Applying the 4EQ, you discover that getting to and from work is very difficult due to the uveitis, as Rosie's direction of travel is always into the rising or setting sun. Coping with this either increases her journey time or delays the time she sets off. You suggest that she uses subsidised taxis to and from work, as alternative methods are not suitable.

When teaching, Rosie stands at the front of the class which adds to her fatigue. You provide her with a sit-stand chair which allows her to get up and down much more easily than a standard chair.

Rosie finds working at the computer and reading written material difficult. To avoid her having to use her upper limbs to interact with the computer you suggest she uses voice-activated software.

To overcome her visual impairment when reading material, you supply a desktop CCTV/magnifier which magnifies copy and books.

The design manager

John has Parkinson's disease and the side effects of his medication result in hyperactivity, short-term memory loss and, at times, increased fatigue.

Through a DSE assessment and applying the 4EQ, you find John has no problems getting to and from work and no specific daily living requirements, but there is scope for reasonable adjustments to be made.

Voice-activated software helps him avoid fatigue from writing and using the keyboard and mouse. Rather than a headset, he is supplied with a desktop microphone.

Improved access

The Access to Work programme (www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Customers/HelpForDisabledPeople/AccesstoWork) offers technical and financial support for employers taking on disabled recruits or accommodating employees who develop a disability.

The programme will pay up to 100% of the approved costs (after the first £300) of adjustments for new starters and up to 80% for existing employees.

Adjustments include the sort of equipment and workplace changes described in our examples above, but could also stretch to employment of a support worker to help the disabled person with tasks they cannot manage or communication such as sign language.

The first step towards this help is a "quality assessment", which might include a DSE, ergonomic and/or technical assessment of the individual's needs at work.

In England and Wales, Access to Work organisers will nominate their own contractor to carry out a quality assessment; in Scotland you can choose your own assessor.

Anticipate change

Either way, if you rely on Access to Work to carry out your assessments, then ensure that you always follow these up with a risk assessment.

For example, if a member of staff has had a visual assessment, you may find the equipment recommended has knock-on ergonomic implications. The visual impairment assessment is aimed at  finding adjustments to help in that limited area and will not deal with associated  issues.

A couple of final points. Most importantly of all, do not make blanket assumptions: start with a standard assessment, and follow this by looking at what further changes need to be made using the 4EQ detailed above.

Secondly, remember workplaces never stay the same for long, so when there are the inevitable changes, ensure that reviews involve disabled staff.

Duncan Abbott is a member of the HSE's expert group tasked with writing guidance on undertaking risk assessments for disabled workers.