2 THE DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION ACTS AND DISABLED PEOPLE

2.1 Disability Discrimination Acts

The Disability Discrimination Act (1995) (DDA 1995) places a duty on employers, educators and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to avoid discriminating against disabled people. This includes making adjustments to physical features which act as barriers to access for disabled people. Public functions were not covered by this Act.

The Disability Discrimination Act (2005) (DDA 2005) amends the DDA 1995 and extends the principles of Part III of the DDA 1995, which prohibits discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services and premises, to the delivery of public authority functions. This amendment also brings in new duties for public authorities, including Transport Scotland, to actively promote disability equality. Public authorities have a ‘general duty’ and most have ‘specific duties’. The general duty covers:

Eliminating unlawful disability discrimination;
Eliminating unlawful disability harassment;
Promoting equality of opportunity;
Taking steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons;
The need to promote positive attitudes towards disabled people;
The need to encourage participation by disabled persons in public life.

The specific duties are intended to assist public authorities in meeting their ‘general duty’. In particular, the specific duties set out what public bodies should do to plan, deliver and evaluate actions to eliminate discrimination and promote equality, and to report on the activity.

Promoting inclusive environments is one of the key aims in meeting the ‘general duty’. Transport Scotland’s policies, will have to ‘build in’ for disability while the Scottish Government’s overarching Disability Equality Scheme will take a co-ordinating approach to considering disabled peoples’ needs across all Scottish Government departments, agencies, and functions.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) came into being on 1 October 2007. It combines the responsibilities and powers of the three previous equality commissions - Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) for promoting racial, disability and gender equality in Britain. The EHRC covers England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland. The Commission in Scotland is there to see its aims are delivered in a way that responds to Scottish needs. The team is based in Edinburgh and Glasgow and works closely with the Scotland Commissioner.

Codes of practice are available from the EHRC to assist public authorities in meeting their duties. The guidance covering planning, buildings and streets is particularly relevant.

2.2 Disabled People

In the 2001 census 20 per cent of the population were reported to have some form of disability. This includes people with sensory and cognitive impairments, as well as people with mobility impairments, including wheelchair users. Disabled people have a wide spectrum of different and sometimes conflicting needs. Inclusive design sets out to give due consideration to all of these needs and the other demands on a project, including cost, to strike the best balance for all users of an environment.

The average age of the population is increasing. As there is a strong correlation between age and disability, it is important that we design for as wide a group as possible to ensure disabled people can play a full part in society.

For most disabled people the private car is the only form of transport that is accessible and this is likely to continue to be the case no matter how accessible public transport becomes. Yet there are barriers created by the management and operation of our roads and parking systems which restrict access for disabled people. A lack of suitable parking facilities and a lack of dropped kerbs on key pedestrian routes are two of the physical constraints to the use of private vehicles for many disabled people.

The Scottish Government’s 2006 research ‘Improved Public Transport for Disabled People’ identified the biggest difference between disabled adults and non-disabled adults as being not the way disabled people make a journey or the reasons for their trip, but the fact that disabled people are far less likely to make a trip at all. In light of the reduced number of trips made, disabled adults were less likely to report participating in a wide range of activities compared with non-disabled adults. There has been little or no change in the barriers to travel that disabled people face since earlier research on the subject was published in 1998. No one single 'solution' is likely to make a difference to the travel opportunities of disabled people in Scotland.

Many disabled people, although eligible for concessionary travel on buses and trains, cannot actually use such forms of transport largely due to the connecting journey between home and the bus stop or train station. The pedestrian environment has an important part to play in improving access to public transport. This is backed up by the Department for Transport’s research ‘Older People: Their Transport Needs and Requirements’.

Older people worry more about safety in the pedestrian environment and, statistically, they are more severely injured, take longer to recover and suffer greater psychological impact from an accident than younger people. However travel is important for this group to access entertainment, to participate in society and generally to be independent.

As people grow older they become more reliant on public transport but evidence suggests many experience difficulties accessing and using buses and trains due to the poor condition of footways, inadequate crossing facilities and a difficulty in boarding and alighting from public transport vehicles.

This Good Practice Guide means to make a difference to the quality of life of a significant proportion of our population.