An ABC of DDA for Schools

 

Attention class!….. Now you may have heard of the latest law our Government has imposed – the Disability Discrimination Act – or DDA for short – and you may well be wondering what you are supposed to do about it … so in this period we’re going to work this through.

 

There are over 11.7 million disabled people in the UK & despite what many may think, they’re not all in wheelchairs! In fact these represent a minority – and only 5% of these are wheelchair bound – No, the largest number suffer from arthritis & the second largest (around 8 million) have a hearing impediment.

 

The DDA says that all service providers (and that includes schools!) have to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that all their customers have equal access to our services no matter what their disability.

 

Any disabled person that feels that they have not been treated equally can complain – and take their complaint to a Court where a fine of up to £50,000 can be awarded. Clearly such a complaint would not be very good for the schools reputation.

 

So – what do we do?

Well the good news is that this doesn’t mean that we have to spend thousands of pounds rebuilding our schools to fit lifts or ramps. But we do have to have a plan & do something about it.

 

The first step is to get a survey – The law relates to the service we offer, not the building. So a normal building surveyor may not be the best option. There are many surveyors that specialise in these kind of surveys. The survey will look at things like – are there steps? Are the doors wide enough? Etc, but will also suggest solutions like portable ramps, induction loops for those with hearing aids (there are over 3 million people with these) and the use of alternative entrances or portable ramps.

 

The next step is to decide what is the priority for our customers – the students, parents & community (the staff have been covered by other sections of this Act since 1995) and decide what is ‘reasonable’ for us to do. We then write a policy & plan, train our staff – making them aware of the Act & its implications & take action.

The action might be to fit ramps next to stairs, or to provide induction loops, or to improve the facilities for our pupils with special needs. The important thing is that we start to think about what its like getting around the school, if we were disabled in some way. Why not walk around the school with a pupil with a blindfold on – and see how it feels?

 

Having taken action, we need to record what we’ve done – so that if anyone should complain, we can show evidence that we’ve taken this seriously, have a policy, have trained staff & have taken action. Most important though to avoiding all this, is for everyone to be sensitive and try to think of ways by which we can help those people that need our help – before they complain.

 

Finally, we need to consult with the people that use the school – find out which of our pupils or their parents have disabilities – and ask them to help us to be better. This isn’t about political correctness – it’s about allowing everyone equal rights & equal opportunity.

 

For homework, there is lots of reading to do on this subject

 

So let us support you .