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The
Public Sector Response to the Provision of the Disability Discrimination
Act
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 introduced
measures aimed at ending the discrimination which many disabled
people face in the areas of: employment; access to goods, facilities
and services; the management, buying or renting of land or property;
and trade organisations. The Disability Discrimination Bill proposes
substantial amendments to the Act, building on amendments already
made by other legislation since 1999. Amongst other things the proposals
in the Bill would make it unlawful for public authorities to discriminate
in carrying out any of their ‘functions’ that are not
already within the scope of the DDA. Public authorities would be
placed under a duty to make reasonable adjustments if the outcome
to a disabled person would be "very much less favourable"
than to a non-disabled person. In addition the Bill proposes to
place a positive and proactive general duty on organisations that
come within the definition of a public authority to put disability
equality in the mainstream of their activities.
During 2003 CRSP, along with British Market Research
Bureau (BMRB) conducted
an evaluation of how employers and service providers were responding
to both the existing and forthcoming provisions of the Act. The
study explored awareness of the Act, current policy and practices,
and actions taken to conform to existing legislation, as well as
preparation for the changes in legislation, which were due to come
into force the following year (Roberts
et al 2004).
The new study is evaluating the performance of
public authorities specifically and has a dual purpose:
- to examine public authorities’ performance
in relation to the new provisions introduced on 1 October 2004;
and
- to provide a baseline against which to assess
the extent to which the duties in the Disability Discrimination
Bill make a positive impact on disability equality.
Thus, it will:
- test the extent to which public authorities
are already taking steps to avoid discrimination against disabled
people in the provision of their services and in the exercise
of public functions; and
- assess the extent to which public authorities
understand the impact of their activities on disability equality,
and build in disability equality concerns in the way they conduct
their activities.
Project Team
Bruce Stafford, Simon
Roberts, Antonia Ivaldi,
Viet-Hai Phung, Monica Magadi and Nicola Selby.
Sponsor
Department for Work and Pensions
Dates
November 2004 - 2006.
Publication
Roberts, S., Heaver, C., Hill, K., Rennison, J., Stafford, B., Howat,
N., Kelly, G., Krishnan, S., Tapp, P. and Thomas, A. (2004), Disability
in the workplace: Employers’ and service providers’
responses to the Disability Discrimination Act in 2003 and preparation
for 2004 changes, DWP Research Report 202, Leeds, CDS.
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