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Working in partnership to implement section 21 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 across the National Health Service

  • Document type:
    Publication
  • Author:
    Michael Freeney, Richard Cook, Beverley Hale, Dr Stephen Duckworth OBE (NHS Executive; Disability Matters Ltd; King Sturge andamp; Co; The Grass Roots Group)
  • Published date:
    1 July 1999
  • Primary audience:
    Professionals
  • Gateway reference:
    Not required
  • Series number:
    HSC 1999/156
  • Pages:
    118
  • Copyright holder:
    Crown Copyright

Section 21 of the Disability Discrimination Act places a range of new duties upon the NHS with regard to the provision of services to disabled people. This research was undertaken to: identify the key physical barriers which made it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to effectively access health care provision; identify the barriers which disabled people themselves consider to be most in need of addressing; recommend strategies for compliance at different levels throughout the NHS; and provide an estimate of the likely cost of compliance.

The key physical barriers identified as a result of representative access audits

The following key barriers were identified as a result of physical access audits, focus groups with disabled people and postal survey of disabled people's recent experiences and recommendations:

  • Car parking
  • Signage
  • Absence of trained assistants
  • Lack of assistive technology (including loop systems, audio-visual paging systems, text phones)
  • Information in inaccessible media
  • Inaccessible lavatory and bathing facilities
  • Poor physical access generally

Interestingly, the most significant barrier cited by the majority of disabled people was that of inappropriate staff attitudes and behaviours.

Recommended strategies for compliance

The priority will be the production of guidelines to ensure that access for disabled people is an intrinsic part of all Health Service initiatives, now and in the future. Particular examples include:

  • The Accident and Emergency Department Modernisation Programmes
  • The Mixed Wards Initiative
  • The IM and T programme
  • The Modernisation Programme
  • Access to Health Screening

Existing staff must be made aware of their responsibilities under the new legislation as a matter of urgency. Training programmes for new staff will need to be revised to include comprehensive disability awareness training.

All existing policies and procedures need to be revised to ensure that they effectively respond to the needs of disabled people.

Guidelines for health service providers must be produced, providing a systematic audit tool against which policies and procedures can be reviewed in addition to listing relevant sources of advice, support and information.

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