Press Release
DRC pledges to get tough on access offenders on the high street
30 September 2005
On the eve of the first anniversary of new laws to make buildings more user-friendly to Britain’s disabled people, the Disability Rights Commission has revealed that one in two complaints about the legislation concern leisure and retail high street businesses.
Responding to the findings, Bert Massie, Chairman of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), said:
“We’ve got a very simple message for those high street businesses that are dragging their feet. The DRC will vigorously pursue offenders through the courts. We are already taking legal action against two major leisure and retail providers and have a hit list of several others to follow. Laws to make business and services more user-friendly for disabled people have been on the statute book for ten years and there really is nowhere to hide anymore. To be doing very little for your disabled customers is no longer an option.”
The leisure and retail sectors - which include pubs, shops, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, gyms, sports facilities and hotels - accounted for over half of 1,500 complaints about access received by the DRC helpline since October last year. The biggest problems disabled people faced in the leisure industry were the lack of accessible toilets in pubs, clubs and restaurants. Other often cited issues included steps to entrances where no ramp was provided, the lack of disabled people’s parking, poor changing room facilities for disabled people and poor staff attitudes.
The DRC recently supported Greg Jackson in the first physical access case to result in legal action against the retailer, Debenhams. The leisure industry is about to be the subject of another legal case supported by the DRC, against Spirit Group Limited. Spirit Group acquired Scottish and Newcastle breweries in 2003 and currently owns 2,400 pubs nationwide and employs 45,000 staff. The case concerns the lack of an accessible toilet at The Shirley Inn in Croydon.
Bert Massie continued:
“Disabled people are rarely seen in pubs, shops, restaurants and clubs. The reason? Too many high streets still appear to have a sign up that says ‘disabled people are not welcome here’. The result is the social segregation of disabled people from everyone else on a grand scale.”
However, overall the picture is less gloomy. The DRC has investigated over 40 cases across many business sectors where disabled people were receiving a poor service in the past year. Eighty per cent of these were resolved positively. For example, ramps were installed, accessible toilets built, entrances widened, disabled parking bays introduced, and in some cases disabled people received financial compensation.
The DRC has been working successfully with a number of large businesses in the leisure sector who have already made significant improvements. For example, Intercontinental Hotels* (IHG), owners of the Holiday Inn chain in the UK, has allocated £12.8 million for this purpose. Of the approximately 230 IHG-owned hotels in the UK, the vast majority are user-friendly to disabled people. Improvements include accessible bedrooms which are well-lit, wider doors, lower level toilets and handrails, and provision of ‘access kits’ which contain, among other things, vibrating pagers, induction loops, portable door chimes, evacuation chairs and larger print menus.
The DRC has also been working with the major brewer, Youngs, which has entered into a formal agreement with the DRC to make their pubs more user-friendly to disabled people. As part of the agreement, Youngs have recently carried out access audits in all their pubs to identify any physical features that may create barriers for disabled people and has agreed to remove these as soon as possible.
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