Disability discrimination laws

The final part of the Disability Discrimination Act came into effect on October 1, requiring businesses to become accessible to disabled people.

Stakeholder Response: Disability Rights Commission

Bert Massie, chairman of the Disability Rights Commission, said: "Ensuring that disabled people have equal rights in employment is crucial and the new law goes a long way towards achieving this.

"Many firms, especially small businesses, are already successfully employing disabled people without realising it, so it's about doing more to ensure that the one million disabled people who want to work are able to do so."

Stakeholder Response: Leonard Cheshire

A spokesman for Leonard Cheshire said: "Leonard Cheshire believe that the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) that [have] come into force are a very welcome step forward for disability rights. It has never been acceptable for disabled people to be discriminated against when accessing goods and services, now at last, it is illegal too.

"The 'reasonable adjustments' that the act calls for to ensure that services are accessible should not be seen as a burden for businesses. It is socially just for goods and services to be accessible for all, and it is also good business sense for companies and service providers to open up to more customers and more potential revenue.