05 June 2009
Bridget Leathley

Would you employ someone who couldn't speak, and had such a severe neurological disease they needed a personal secretary and a top-of-the-range speech synthesiser? And they're in a wheelchair, with all the access arrangements that entails. And would you take account of that person's needs when a new building was being designed? Well you would if you were Cambridge University's mathematics department, and the individual with the disease was Steven Hawking. Professor Hawking may be a special case, but many people can provide a positive input to the workplace, despite their disability, with only a few adjustments.

We covered mental health in this series in March so this review will focus on physical and sensory disabilities.

Under statute

The most recent version of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) is DDA 2005, but it needs to be read in conjunction with the original DDA of 1995. For example, DDA 1995 defines a disabled person as someone with a "physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities". DDA 2005 updated this to include people with cancer, HIV or multiple sclerosis from the point of diagnosis. What constitutes substantial and long-term is defined in Schedule 1 of the 1995 Act.

You should also be aware of the requirements of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998. To ensure the workplace is safe for a disabled person, and for emergency planning, you may need to collect information about their condition. Section 2(e) of DPA 1998 classifies such information as "sensitive personal data" and Schedule 3 provides the extra conditions that apply to its use. You can find both versions of DDA, and DPA, by year here.

Section 5 of the 1995 DDA provides the legal definition of discrimination, but the explanation and examples given in the Codes of Practice (CoPs) available on the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) website are easier to follow (see box opposite). There are different codes of practice according to which sort of organisation you work for, giving examples of victimisation, harassment and discrimination. More bluntly, the EHRC Easy Read Guides define discrimination as "treating someone worse than other people for some reason".

The Codes of Practice advise that while anyone's health and safety (including those with disabilities) is a factor in deciding whether it's reasonable to make an adjustment for them, organisations should not use health and safety to justify discrimination. Examples of unjustifiable discrimination include banning people with epilepsy from practical courses such as catering or chemistry, or blanket bans on wheelchairs.

But sometimes, health and safety can be used as justification. It is justifiable to refuse to allow someone who cannot stand unaided access to a physically demanding, high-speed amusement park ride, for example (see the Rights of Access CoP) or for a coach driver to refuse to load a particularly heavy and cumbersome wheelchair into the luggage compartment because of the manual handling risk (Transport CoP).

There may also be justification where an individual refuses to give information about their disability. For example, where the parents of a child with epilepsy refuse the school permission to share this information with a swimming pool, the school is justified in refusing to take the child swimming (Schools CoP).

---

EHRC Codes of Practice

The Codes of Practice can be found here - select Publications, then narrow the topic to "disability" and the material to "Codes of Practice".

• "Employment and Occupation": applicable to most employers, though some will also need to look at the specialist CoPs for their obligations to customers, members or service users. See especially Section 5: Duty to Make Reasonable Adjustments and Section 6: Justification.
• "Trade Organisations, Qualification Bodies and General Qualifications Bodies".
• "Providers of Post-16 Education and Related Services" and "Schools".
• "Rights of Access: Services to the Public, Public Authority Functions, Private Clubs and Premises".
• "Provision and Use of Transport Vehicles".
  

  ---

As well as the CoPs, selecting "information guides" instead of "Codes of Practice" will take you to the "Bringing the DDA to life" series and "practical guides", each of which covers a specific business type (such as hairdressers, vehicle rental or newsagents).

Design brief

Physical features (see 7.43 of Rights of Access CoP) include features arising from the design or construction of a building, fixtures, fittings, furnishings, furniture, equipment or materials, or any other "physical element or quality of land contained in the premises". This includes steps, kerbs, doors, gates, counters and floor coverings. These features may have an impact on safety: would someone with poor vision trip over a step in a dim corridor, for example? Would an employee suffer back injuries if they helped lift a wheelchair-bound colleague up a flight of steps every morning?

The Rights of Access CoP goes into the most detail on this topic. Section 7.32 outlines options for overcoming barriers created by physical features (removing them, altering them, avoiding them, and providing an alternative service), with examples given in the following sub-sections of Section 7 and in 10.33 to 10.37.

The Trade Organisations CoP suggests helpful physical changes, including relocating light switches, door handles or shelves for someone who has difficulty in reaching and providing appropriate contrast in décor to help the safe mobility of a visually impaired person.

The Scottish disability information service "Update" provides a useful poster with details of ideal dimensions and layout of building fixtures and fittings in order to make access easier for disabled people. This includes measurements for parking spaces, doorways, entrances and toilets. From www.update.org.uk select "information" then "The Access Guide".

The Centre for Accessible Environments at www.cae.org.uk provides advice on ramps, and on steps and stairs (select "design guidance"). The advice includes specifications for handrails, ramp gradients and tactile surfaces. You can also link from here to Part M of the 2000 Building Regulations on the government's planning portal site (www.planningportal.gov.uk). There are a few reminders here of where to consider safety; designing a parking bay to allow safe transfer of a passenger or driver to a wheelchair, for example. The guidance covers the potential hazards of ramps, along with their benefits, and the importance of providing long enough handrails.

---

Accessible websites

Though access to websites may not in itself be a health or safety issue, many companies now make use of internal websites (intranets) to publish health and safety procedures, so it is important that this information is accessible to all employees. The following sites have advice on making websites accessible:

• www.rnib.org.uk - "web accessibility" link from home page
• www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility - the BBC website explains how to change browser, computer, keyboard and mouse settings to make the web more accessible
• www.abilitynet.org.uk - a charity helping disabled adults and children use computers and the internet
• www.equalityhumanrights.com - "publications" and then type "web" in the search field to find Making Websites that Are Easy for Everyone to Use; The Web: Access and Inclusion for Disabled People and Website Accessibility Guidance
• www.saifscotland.org.uk - select "publications" for advice from the Scottish Accessible Information Forum
• www.w3.org - the ultimate source on this topic, with more information on the subject than you could ever want.
  

  ---

Crisis planning

Emergency procedures need to take account of any physical difficulties people may experience in following them and of the fact that different people may need to be given the procedures in different formats (for example, large print or Braille).

The most useful document in this context is on the Communities and Local government site. From www.communities.gov.uk select "all publications" and then "search publications". If you limit your search to "good practice and guidance" and use "disabled" as the keyword, you should be able to find "Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Means of Escape for Disabled People, (2007)". This provides advice on preparing Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans for employees and regular visitors, and on catering for unknown disabled visitors or users. Appendix 1 summarises the suitability of a variety of escape methods for each type of disability. Wheelchair users may need to use a lift or an evacuation chair, whereas visually and hearing-impaired people may need someone to meet them at their workplace to escort them along the normal evacuation route.

The HSE publication Health and Safety for Disabled People and Their Employers (see 'other key sites' below) suggests the use of flashing lights to advise a deaf person of the need to evacuate.

While you might have lifts to help people in wheelchairs to get into a building with comfort, what arrangements have you made to get people out during an emergency, such as a fire, when lifts mustn't be used? One correspondent on the BBC's "Ouch!" site raised this issue when the fire service was taking industrial action, but the questions raised are equally valid when there is no industrial action looming. See www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/features/double_the_fire_risk.shtml

Rating risk

While the EHRC CoPs warn about the inappropriate use of risk assessments, the best advice on how to consider disabled people in a risk assessment comes from the HSE. Find "guidance for people doing risk assessments" in the HSE disability area for a list of dos and don'ts. It emphasises the principle of reasonable adjustments, along with the importance of involving the people affected by the assessment. The HSE recommends involving specialists such as disability employment advisers (DEAs). More information on the role of these advisers can be found at www.direct.gov.uk - select "disabled people" then "employment support" and find "disability employment advisers" under the "looking for work" heading. DEAs can be contacted via your local Jobcentre (see 'other key sites' below).

Section 11.5 of the Schools CoP provides a list of control measures to reduce risk to pupils and staff. Many of these measures, such as safe practices in first aid, would be useful in other contexts.

Employers may be entitled to a grant towards the cost of workplace adjustments needed to enable disabled people to enter, and stay at, work. More details can be found on the Jobcentre website. Select "employers home" then "recruitment advisory services" and "diversity". See "access to work" for information on help with the cost of equipment and "job introduction scheme" for a weekly grant to cover settling in costs.

---

Other key sites

• HSE: www.hse.gov.uk. Select "disability" from the "health & safety topics" menu. A large print pdf version of Health and Safety for Disabled People and Their Employers is the first link on this page. Though there is a lot of overlap, you may also find www.hse.gov.uk/diversity useful.
• Jobcentres: www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk
  

  ---

In the doghouse

There's a common perception that dogs are dirty, and therefore must be a health hazard (and potentially a safety hazard too, if you've ever been bitten by one). The Disability Conciliation Service reports the case of a hotel restaurant refusing access to a customer with a hearing dog on "health and safety" grounds (from www.dcs-gb.net select "cases"). The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association provides advice to hotels and restaurants that guide dogs and other assistance dogs are exempt from the usual hygiene rules that apply to dogs because of their training and regular health checks. From www.guidedogs.org.uk select "make a difference" then "campaigns" and  access for all".

If you provide a service to the public which restricts animals except for assistance dogs, ensure that your staff know that it isn't only visually and hearing impaired people who use assistance dogs. Disability assistance dogs can be trained to call an ambulance, act as a physical support, assist with dressing and even load and unload the washing machine. "Seizure alert" dogs have been trained to give people with epilepsy up to 10 minutes warning of an imminent seizure, enabling them to find a safe place to have the seizure or seek help. It would be embarrassing, potentially illegal and certainly upsetting to refuse someone access with a dog because the person doesn't look as though they have a disability. Read more about these amazingly clever dogs at www.support-dogs.org.uk/SADogs.htm

Finally, if you are looking for training in making reasonable adjustments, the Centre for Accessible Environments runs courses on access auditing and building management to conform with DDA; see www.cae.org.uk/training.html Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) courses cover awareness, use of text phones and British Sign Language. From www.rnid.org.uk select "how we help" then "our services", "training and courses" and "training for employers".

The Acas half-day course on understanding discrimination includes disability (as well as age, sex and race). Select "training" at www.acas.org.uk Workplace Law provides in-house training in equality and diversity, and disability awareness, though the emphasis appears to be on avoiding litigation rather than ensuring health and safety. For details of their course see www.workplacelaw.net/training

Categories:
Disability Discrimination Act, Article