Projects

Introduction
This study, which was carried out in conjunction with the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) explored how employers and service providers were responding to both existing and forthcoming provisions of the DDA. Specifically, it examined awareness of the Act, current policy and practices, actions taken to conform to existing legislation, and preparation for the October 2004 changes in legislation.

Requirements under the Act were introduced in phases with the final phases effective in October 2004.

• Under Part II of the Act the exemption from provisions concerning the recruitment and employment for employers with less than 15 employees was removed.
  
• Under Part III of the Act the final stages of access duties came into force which require service providers to remove, alter or avoid physical barriers or provide alternative means of using the service, where physical features of their services make access for disabled people unreasonably difficult or impossible.

• There is a lack of knowledge about disability on the part of employers, in particular by small employers and/or those who have not employed a disabled person. Employers do not have as broad a perception of disability as is set out by the DDA. Disability still carries connotations of physical and visible impairments and there are misunderstandings and prejudices around mental illness.
  
• Knowledge of the employment provisions of the DDA was higher among larger organisations, and in public and voluntary sector organisations, as well as among employers at workplaces where there had been disabled employees. Smaller employers in particular (those with fewer than 15 employees) were unsure of the implications of the Act for their organisation. Knowledge of the October 2004 changes concerning the provision of services was usually higher in organisations within the public and voluntary sector.
  
• Nearly all employers (94 per cent) stated that their workplace always sought to recruit the best person for the job, regardless of any disability, yet many felt that taking on a disabled person is a major risk for the employer (33 per cent), and that their workplace would find it difficult to retain an employee who became disabled (47 per cent). Workplaces which had employed people with disabilities were more likely to report that it is easy to employ a disabled person.
  
• Over four-fifths of employers that have had disabled employees (83 per cent) said that adjustments at the workplace or to working practices had been made or were planned specifically to help disabled employees. Overall, nearly three-quarters of service providers said that they had adjustments in place, or planned, to assist disabled customers. However, changes and adjustments by service providers tended to be for customers with physical impairments.
  
• The cost of making adjustments was of concern to some employers, especially small ones, in the case studies. However, 72 per cent of employers in the survey who had made changes said that it had been easy to make the adjustments while only 14 per cent said that it had been difficult.
  
• The case studies indicated that the DDA had acted as a driver and 'road map' for organisations where a commitment to disabled people was already a core value.

CRSP Project team
Simon Roberts, Claire Heaver, Katherine Hill, Joanne Rennison and Bruce Stafford.

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.