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Churches and Disability » Notes on the DDA

The Disability Discrimination Act

Overview

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) is now fully implemented in the areas that relate to churches. This comprehensive Act means that churches have a legal duty to be inclusive and accessible to disabled people alongside the higher moral duty that has always existed, but was sadly, often overlooked.

As service providers, churches have the following obligations:

Not to treat disabled people less favourably for a reason related to their disability — for example, a church should not tell a family not to bring their child with learning disabilities as the child shouts out at inappropriate times. The church should work with the parents to find a solution together.

To make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled people, such as providing extra help or making changes to the way the church provides its services (whether these be worship services, house groups, social events, weddings, funerals etc). An example might be to provide large print versions of songs projected onto screen, to help people with visual impairments or people who cannot stand to worship. Clear lighting, will make a considerable difference to many with a either a sight or hearing impediment. When redecorating, the choice of colours can make a significant difference to those with a visual impairment; a clear differentiation between a wall and door frame can make entrances and exits more obvious, clear and bold signs will enable some to go to the toilet without the embarrassment of asking for directions.

Reasonable adjustments also involves the provision of equipment such as an induction loop system for hearing aid users.

Some things can be considered straightaway without any real cost implications: mats and carpets should be removed if they provided the danger of tripping to somebody who has difficulty walking, furniture can be moved to allow easier wheelchair access.

Don’t forget that the real experts in this field are the people who themselves have a disability — search them out and listen to them!

What does “Reasonable Adjustments” mean

Churches have a duty to make reasonable changes and provision for disabled people to enable them to access the church’s activities. However, the extent to which it is reasonable for a church to undertake actions requiring expenditure depends on its size, resources and its particular circumstances. Unfortunately, the Act is imprecise as to what is “reasonable”, but generally a cathedral or large well-attended church would be required to do more than a small rural church with a handful of worshipers.

If your Church is listed then it may not be possible to change physical features like the size of doors, however consideration should be given to whether there might be an alternative entrance that could be used instead.

The Act does not expect Churches to bankrupt themselves to make changes, but it does expect Churches to have considered what they can do to be as accessible as possible. It is not acceptable to leave it to be considered at a later date or just dismiss it out of hand because you currently have no disabled users. Neither is it acceptable to put it off because it seems too bigger task.

• Perhaps the easiest way to comply with the Act is to undertake an accessibility audit to identify physical and attitude barriers to access for disabled people, you could also ask disabled members and local disability Organisations for assistance.

This will enable you to form an Action Plan of what can and can’t be done. It will also help you break into manageable chunks the work that needs doing. Some work, such as large print hymn sheets can be implemented at little cost straight away. Signage or redecorating to help the partially sighted can be planned for next time the work would have been done, although this should be within a reasonable timescale.

Finally,

• make sure it’s easy for disabled people to ask for help if they need it.
• regularly review the effectiveness of your disability provision and make further changes if the review says they are necessary. It will not be possible to anticipate every barrier which a disabled person may face, but if the church can show that it has considered the issues, it is likely to have met the legal requirements.

Further Reading

Churches for All is a campaign to emphasise the vital need to include disabled people. It is a forum for Christian disability charities to promote good practice so that all people regardless of disabilities and their families may be fully included in the life of the church. See www.churchesforall.org.

Alternatively for more information, look at www.throughtheroof.org offering links to resources and information to help grow inclusive churches.