Legal links

You can find the Equality Act 2010 here.  The section concerning reasonable adjustments is here.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission provide the statutory code of practice that accompanies the equality act here, and also additional guidance for service providers here. If you are also an employer you can find your duties in respect of workers and employees here, here and here.

For businesses

Historic England has some really useful guidance on the equality act here.

There is government guidance on access for planning purposes here. The part M building regulations around access are here.

There is guidance from the government on the requirements to make adjustments in employment here.

You can often get support from your local authority planning officer that deals with access.  They will often be able to provide free advice and support with access.

 

For individuals considering an equality act claim

Remember that making equality act claims can be a daunting affair. It can be very stressful and you are likely to encounter a great deal of resistance from people that do not believe that they have discriminated against you.  It is often a good idea to ensure that you have support around you to manage the emotional effects of bringing a claim. There are some excellent websites to help you with starting the process of making a claim, and some great podcasts too.  I’d recommend starting by listening to this one. Most cases that are made to the county court or the employment tribunal end in settlement or are withdrawn rather than going to a full hearing. You should keep this in mind when you are considering a claim.

Possibly the most accessible and easy to follow guide to the process of making a claim against a service provider is at Doug Paulley‘s blog.  His Disability Attitude Re-adjustment Tool has an easy to follow explanation of what to do.  His website also has a range of very helpful links. Another site with a range of information and links is Stammering Law.

Fry Law has a downloadable guide to making a claim on their website as well.

There are also some links for pages that will be updated over time about the level of award to claim in cases of discrimination.  For example you can see this case attracted a £3000 award in a case where there was access but assistance was required to get into a restaurant. In another case a man that was served on the street by his local bank was awarded £6500 and the bank was ordered to do building work costing £20,000.

An oft quoted authority comes from Lord Justice  Sedley in his judgement on the case of Roads v Central Trains Ltd [2004] EWCA Civ 1541. While the judgement precedes the Equality Act 2010 it remains relevant.  He said:

“the policy of the [1995 Act] is not a minimalist policy of simply ensuring that some access is available to the disabled: it is, so far as reasonably practicable, to approximate the access enjoyed by disabled persons to that enjoyed by the rest of the public.”

This sentiment is reiterated in the Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance.