Scientific and technological reports

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995

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The following summary of the Disability Discrimination Act has been prepared in connection with COST 219's consideration of Universal Service, and takes no account of those parts of the Act which have no bearing upon the provision of telecommunications services or terminal equipment.

The Act consists of 8 parts and 8 schedules.

Part I gives a definition of disability which is unique to this Act, and permits the Secretary of State to issue guidance on its interpretation for the benefit of courts and tribunals determining cases.

Part II relates solely to employment and makes it unlawful to discriminate against a disabled person in employment and in the offer of employment. It also makes unlawful similar forms of discrimination by trade organisations, defined as organisations of workers, employers and members of professions or trades.

Part III makes discrimination unlawful in other areas, specifically in the provision of goods, facilities and services.

Part IV deals with education.

Part V deals with public transport and enables the Secretary of State to make regulations that would require operators of taxis, public service vehicles or rail vehicles to make their services accessible to disabled people.

Part VI establishes the National Disability Council.

Part VII contains supplemental provisions, covering the issue of codes of practice, victimisation, provision of pro-forma guides to presenting (and answering) a case, aiding and abetting and the liability of employers for employees' actions. It also makes this Act defer to any other Act or Instrument, or to acts done for the purpose of national security.

Part VIII contains miscellaneous provisions.

In the SCHEDULES, Schedules 1 & 2 enlarge on the definitions of impairment and the effects of impairment which would constitute a disability for the purposes of this Act. Schedule 3 is concerned with enforcement. Schedule 4 deals with alterations to premises occupied under leases. Schedule 5 describes the status of the National Disability Council. Schedule 6 lists the consequential amendments and Schedule 7 the repeals. Schedule 8 sets out the modifications to the Act as it applies in Northern Ireland.

Discrimination in the provision of Goods, Facilities and Services.

Examples given are:

"access to and use of any place which members of the public are permitted to enter",

"access to and use of means of communication"

"access to and use of information services"

"accommodation in a hoTel:, ......... etc"

"facilities by way of banking or insurance or for grants, loans, credit or finance"

"facilities provided by employment agencies or under Section 2 of the Employment and Training Act 1973"

" the services of any profession or trade, or any local or other public authority".

Part III does not apply to school or college education or to the use of any means of transport.

Discrimination in areas such as the above is unlawful, whether it lies in refusal to provide a service, in failure to comply with the duty to remove physical or procedural barriers which make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to use the service, in the standard or manner of the service provided to a disabled person, or in the terms on which that service is provided.

The provider of the service has a duty to provide a reasonable alternative method of service delivery if a physical feature which imposes a barrier cannot be removed or altered. Regulations may prescribe (inter alia) what is reasonable, what categories of service providers may be exempt from this particular requirement, what things are to be treated as physical features, and for the calculation of a maximum cost which it would be unreasonable for the provider to have to exceed.

Enforcement of Part III is by way of civil proceedings brought in a county court by a person who claims to have suffered discrimination and instituted within 6 months of the date of the action complained of.

Comment: Physical access to payphones, and access to information services such as directory enquiries, would seem to be covered by Part III unless excluded by Regulations yet to be laid. If the provision of telecommunication services by voice Telephony only is regarded as a physical feature, the provider has (unless exempted by Regulations) a duty to provide a reasonable alternative. (If this provision is regarded as a "practice, policy or procedure" the provider must take reasonable steps to change it.) A PSTN provider could of course argue that subscribers have a choice of whether to use voice or facsimile equipment connected to his lines, so the alternative is already in place; however network services such as operator access and directory enquiries would presumably have to be offered in non-voice modes. Network operators who provide payphones would have to ensure that appropriate access was available unless exemptions are made.

As the issue of physical access to payphones is covered by this Act, Oftel have taken the view that it does not need to be included in Universal Service obligations. Furthermore, Oftel may take the view that the Universal Service Fund will not reimburse service providers for activities which they are legally obliged to undertake. In this eventuality, those measures to remove discrimination which are required by this Act and those which are contained in Universal Service obligations would become mutually exclusive. The effect of such a move could be to exclude any provisions in respect of services for disabled people from Universal Service; such provisions would either be legal requirements or they would be commercially justified ventures on the part of the operators.