Are Your Offices DDA Compliant?

In this blog post, we would like to look at the rules and regulations of DDA compliant offices. We discuss what DDA compliance means, what DDA defines, and how to make sure that your office is DDA compliant.

What Is DDA Compliance?

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) became law in 1995; This bill made it mandatory that all establishments and service providers, open to the public have taken reasonable steps to provide access for disabled people. This law requires that businesses also make reasonable adjustments so they can employ disabled people. It is essential that companies have looked at ways to remove physical features and barriers to help disabled people access their offices.

What are Physical Features?

A physical feature, as defined by the Disability Discrimination Act, is anything within the office that approach too, exit from or access around the building is an ‘issue’ to a disabled person. This could include things such as fixtures, fittings, furnishing, equipment and similar.

A physical feature will include things like steps and stairways, kerbs, parking areas, entrances and exits, internal and external doors, toilets and washing facilities, lifts and escalators, telephones and service desks, for example.

If a disabled person had a meeting at your office, could they gain access to your office or building? Could they leave your office or would you need to open the door for them? If you have high counters, could they see you over them? Would they be able to contact a member of staff from the toilet if there was an emergency or they had a fall?

What is a Reasonable Adjustment?

The DDA Law requires that reasonable adjustments are made, but what does this mean for your business? You need to provide ramps so a disabled person can get to different levels of your office. You also need to consider stairway lifts so a disabled person could get out of the building in case of an emergency. Doorways may need to be made wider for wheelchair access.

You will need to consider emergency assist alarms for accessible toilets and washrooms, as well as accessible toilets too.  If a toilet area contains for or more cubicles, one of these must be an accessible toilet. This means that it must have an outward opening door, have a minimum width of 1200mm, have lower washbasins and a working emergency assist alarm.

If you want to ensure that your offices are DDA compliant, then why not contact us today we are here to help.