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NSC Home Page > EUAS Contents > Hosting people with disabilities
LOGISTICS
Health and Safety
Hosting people with disabilities
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) introduced new laws aimed at ending the discrimination faced by many disabled people. Almost all of the obligations under the Act are now in place (2004). The Act gave people with disabilities (whether these be physical or sensory/cognitive/learning difficulties), new rights of access to goods, facilities and services.
For example if you permit/encourage educational visits to your quarry then you are a 'service provider'. As a service provider, you have to take positive steps to make your service accessible to people with disabilities. This may entail making reasonable adjustments to the service you already provide in order to allow everyone to access it.
Therefore provision for people with disabilities is an essential part of any plan to engage with the public, schools and colleges. It should be included in both short term and more longer term goals for when funding permits. Clearly, quarries and processing plants pose some extreme challenges in this respect, but the law is already being reflected in court decisions.
For example if it is impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to access a part of your site, you are required to:
take reasonable steps to change your practices (perhaps arrange for a vehicle to provide transport around the quarry for the less mobile) or
provide a reasonable alternative method of making your services available to people with disabilities (perhaps a video link viewable from a nearby office).
Checklist of Good Practice:
Listed below are some measures you might consider, to ensure that you comply with the spirit of the DDA, as well as to meet your legal obligations:
Think and plan ahead to meet the needs of your disabled customers.
Think about the range of disabilities there are when planning adjustments.
If in doubt, ask disabled people themselves or see contacts below.
Train staff in disability awareness.
Regularly review your service for disabled people.
Consider making any physical adjustments at the same time as any building or refurbishment work you are planning, which could help reduce costs and disruption.
For further information contact Disability Rights Commission (for advice pack visit www.drb-gb.org); www.disability.gov.uk; or The Fieldfare Trust (www.fieldfare.org.uk).