How to Start & Run a B&B BandBED2eBook-1 | Page 57

Disability Regulation
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995/2005 gives disabled people rights in
areas including access to goods, facilities and services – including B&Bs.
You are required to make reasonable adjustments to the way you deliver your services
and to the physical features of your premises to make it easier for disabled guests to use
them.
As a 'service provider', you need to make sure you treat disabled guests the same as
you treat other guests, unless there is adequate justification for less favourable
treatment, such as health and safety. You would be treating guests with disabilities less
favourably if you:
• refuse to serve them
• offer less favourable terms
• offer a lower standard of service compared with what you normally offer.
If you treat someone less favourably, the Act allows them to seek damages from you
through the County Court.
Since 1 October 2004 'service providers' have had a duty to take reasonable steps to
remove, alter or avoid any physical barriers that make it impossible or unreasonably
difficult for disabled people to make full use of facilities, if the service cannot be
provided by an alternative method.
Note that you are only required to do what is 'reasonable'. The Equalities and Human
Rights Commission (EHRC)'s Code of Practice give more information on assessing
whether a particular adjustment is reasonable. In general, the factors to consider would
include:
• whether the proposed adjustment would meet the needs of the disabled person
• whether the adjustment is affordable
• whether the adjustment would have a serious effect on other people.
The Act permits service providers to justify less favourable treatment (and in some
instances failure to make a reasonable adjustment) when there is no possibility to do so,
despite the fact that this would mean that a disabled person is treated less favourably.
Service providers do therefore have flexibility when considering how to make their
services accessible to disabled people. Remember that what might be considered
reasonable for a national hotel chain may not be so for a small B&B or guesthouse.
Besides the cost of making physical alterations, there may be other restrictions – for
instance, those imposed by the “listing” authorities on what changes are allowed for
listed buildings.
From 1 October 2010, the majority of the Equality Act 2010 will be implemented and
will replace major parts of the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act. The
Equality Act is intended “to provide a new legislative framework to protect the rights
of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all; to update, simplify and
strengthen the previous legislation; and to deliver a simple, modern and accessible
framework of discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and
promotes a fair and more equal society”.