Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) places duties on service providers to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that their services are accessible to disabled people.

The final phase of the Part III duties to make changes to physical features to make a service accessible for disabled people comes into force from 1st October 2004. Service providers will then have to take reasonable steps to remove, alter or provide a reasonable means of avoiding physical features if it is otherwise impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to access a service.

The Code of Practice on Part III, published by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), explains clearly that any assessment of what constitutes a reasonable adjustment will take into account all of the circumstances of a given case - including the costs of any adjustment, its practicability, and the extent of the organisation's resources. The Act's intention is to encourage a flexible response from service providers, since what may be reasonable for a large and well-funded organisation may not be reasonable for a service provider with a smaller budget.

In many cases reasonable adjustments that may be required of a service provider can be quite minor, and may cost little or even nothing at all. For example, allowing the use of an accessible side door if the front entrance is inaccessible to people in wheel chairs or mobility difficulties, or even providing literature in large print for people with visual impairments.

General information and a copy of the code of practice can also be obtained from the Disability Rights Commission website at www.drc-gb.org with "what the laws says PDF" here (valid Feb 2004).

:: FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE ::

This is GUIDELINE INFORMATION ONLY and you must personally find out if any of these conditions apply to your company or business.

In most cases, most people will not be able to receive any financial assistance.

However, this does NOT apply to everyone.

There are many Federal and Local Government Grants available to those which meet certain guidelines.

In some smaller cities (where people are generally much more friendly and Talk with their neighbours) some shops owners are forming "collectives" and submitting proposals to their local government or council regarding Upgrading certain parts of the city CBD (which may just happen to include their shops).

Indeed, many councils have budgets which include financial assistance for tourism and or restoration and upgrades.

You just need to see what the guidelines are for YOUR local area and then if possible work out how you can apply these conditions to your specific needs.

Another place you can find possible Federal and Local Govt funding which MAY be available is here http://www.grantsonline.org.uk/

LEGAL NOTICE:
We do not wish to state or imply that you are automatically (or other) eligible to receive any financial assistance from any government, council, agency or other. We do state that you MAY possibly be eligible to receive some sort of assistance IF you meet certain guideline and ONLY IF these services are being offered by any government, council, agency or other for your specific area. IN ALL CASES, YOU MUST PERSONALLY ENQUIRE AS TO THE AVAILABILITY OF ANY SUCH GRANT OR FUNDING AND ALSO TO YOUR PERSONAL OR COLLECTIVE AVAILABILITY TO RECEIVE SUCH FUNDING OR GRANT.