Good progress on DDA so far, but don't stop there…
Chris Grace, director of consultancy Individuall, describes himself as an "active" disabled person. What he means by this is that he refuses to allow disability - he's been in a wheelchair since he was 12 - to affect his life. He leads an active social life, meeting friends and going to restaurants, the kind of things most people take for granted.
Sadly, Grace considers himself an exception in the disabled community. He believes that many disabled people choose to stay at home simply because participating in social arrangements can range from difficult to virtually impossible.
To experience some of these difficulties we decided to take Grace out for a day to visit some hospitality businesses. The object of the exercise was not to name and shame, but to see how operators are gearing up for the final stages of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). Under the DDA service providers are already under an obligation to take reasonable steps to change practices or policies that make it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use their services. From October 2004 they will have additional duties to either remove or alter obstructions or provide a reasonable means of avoiding them.
So how is the hospitality industry faring? On the whole pretty well, as the pragmatic Grace reports. Where, for example, Grace's wheelchair would not pass through an entrance door an alternative entrance was offered, a solution that Grace found acceptable for the time being, although further adjustments might have to be made by 2004.
It's not always necessary to spend lots of money to comply with the law, as Grace found out at Langan's Brasserie. There, staff could just as easily accommodate a partially-sighted customer by offering a magnifying glass, as they could a customer requesting a well-done steak. It boils down to what the hospitality industry should do better than any other, accommodating customers, whatever their requirements, and this should be no different for people whose circumstances dictate that they are covered by the DDA.
There's still some way to go. Not all operations have access to a disabled toilet, or as in the worst case in Grace's day, the toilet was being used for storage. These areas need to be addressed now, and not two months before the DDA is enforced.
It's also worth noting examples of good practice outside the industry and seeing how these can be adapted to your business. London cabbies, as shown in our feature, are used to customers requiring extra assistance. Some have specially designed cabs, but they are also generally happy to help, proving the importance of having the right attitude.
The law is there to protect the rights of disabled customers. But there is another business benefit to operators worth considering. There are 8.5 million registered disabled people in this country, and if many don't go out, they constitute a potential new customer base with a collective spending power estimated at £48b. Over the coming months we will report more on disabled customers and show how you can gear up for them without breaking the bank.
Jenny Webster
Deputy Editor
Caterer & Hotelkeeper
