|
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) requires providers of services to provide "reasonable access" to their services and facilities, the penalty for failure may not simply be lost goodwill and custom, poor media publicity and costly complaint administration, it mav even result bv virtue of section 9 of the Code of Practice in severe financial penalties. Download relevant DDA and Code of practice sections.
Accessibility begins in the ear park.
In order to satisfy the requirements of the DDA. it is necessaiy to not only have supplied disabled parking bays which are suitable in dimension and adequate in number, but they must now be actively "monitored" in order to stop the prevalent social malaise of able bodied driver abuse of these bays. Remember that if access is impeded by an able bodied drivers vehicle, this becomes an impediment to access as that bav is no longer available to the disabled driver.
These requirements apply equally to retailers, hospitals, banks, fast food stores, cinemas, offices, stations; in fact anywhere a disabled customer requires access,
Spacehog is the only independently proven solution to solve able bodied abuse.
Why is it Important ?
• Surveys show that accessible parking is the number 1 concern of disabled drivel's when deciding where to shop
• If they can't park go elsewhere - "3% shop where easiesi parking
• SH5 million disabled customer (1 in every 4 families )
• 2 million Disabled Permit Holders
•10% of all private new cars sold are under the motability scheme
• Represent a 49 Billion Pound annual spend.
• Have higher single spend per trip than able -bodied
• Admin is Nation of complaints is un-necessaiy expenditure ■Very poor public relations and media repercussions.
• Right to sue for emotional distress for breaches under the Act*
Important Note:
The Disabilitv Discrimination Act does not limit it's effect to disabled dmers with
w
permits, as such when considering your off-street parking provisions, you should take account of the fact that disabled dmers and disabled customers without permits have the same rights to accessible parking provisions as those with permits. Tills point was effectively confirmed by the Disabilitv Rights Commission in Feb 02 when it stated in it's Code of Practice that you cannot adopt a narrower definition of disability than is prescribed in the legislation,
Abuse of disabled parking bays by able-bodied is at the very least immoral yet those drivers or passengers who suffer from severe temporary disabilities, those who have for instance recently left hospital have the same rights under the Act, because of their disabilities, to park in disabled parking bays. This only applies whilst their disability directly affects their ability to gain access to a company's, retailers or service providers services
Disabled Parking Bay Requirements
Service pro\~iders are required to provide adequate and suitable parking for disabled customers. The general minimum requirements are as follows: -
• Location of bays should be within 50m of entrance
• Bays should be suitably designated by appropriate European disabled logo signs
• Bays should be monitored to ensure that able drivers are not obstructing bays
• Clear signs should show the way to the disabled bays.
• Bays should be lined or painted to establish location and hex marked side areas to define the wheelchair access.
• Bays need to be wide enough to facilitate wheelchairs
• Dropped Kerbs between parking bays and entrance to allow easy curb mounting
• All pedestrian routes should be level and accessible
• Drop-off points should be provided where feasible
Sufficient head room provided for rear wheelchair access vehicles.
Sufficient number of bays should be provided:-In general one per disabled employee plus one extra.
also
Between 4% and 6% (depending upon location) of total bays provided should be marked and allocated for disabled customers.
Don't forget to allocate one disabled bay extra for each disabled member of staff, on top of the bays for visitors and customers.
Disabled Bays must be continually reviewed to ensure that the provision of accessible parking remains appropriate
Spacehog provides automatic reports to me
Important Note
Please note that these are minimum quantities and where experience or location shows that there are a high degree of elderly or disabled clientele, for instance as in hospitals, doctors surseries: more bavs should be allocated accordinslv.
Takin From www.spacehog.org.uk/
|
