Disability

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 gives disabled people rights in the areas of:

• employment

• education

• access to goods, facilities and services and

• buying or renting land or property.

The Act also allows the government to set minimum standards so that disabled people can use public transport easily.

Since 1 October 2004, Part Three of the DDA 1995 has required businesses and other organisations to take reasonable steps to tackle physical features that act as a barrier to disabled people who want to access their services.

This may mean to remove, alter or provide a reasonable means of avoiding physical features of a building which make access impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people.

In April 2005, a new Disability Discrimination Act was passed by Parliament, which amends or extends existing provisions in the DDA 1995, relating to:

• transport vehicles
• renting property and for tenants to make disability-related adaptations
• extending protection to cover people who have HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis from the moment they are diagnosed and
• requiring public bodies to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people.

As a result of the changes in the legislation, Woking Borough Council has produced their Disability Equality Scheme and Action plan. The scheme is available in full, as a summary version or as an easy read version. The scheme aims to further develop and mainstream the rights of disabled people and access to council services for disabled people in Woking.

If you would like information about the accessibility of venues in Woking, why not try loooking at Disabled Go. If you would like to find out more about the accessibility of WokingTown Centre please look at our leaflet giving more information on this.