Part III: Goods and Services and facilities

This part of the Act includes service providers like shops, theatres, railway stations, solicitors, banks, hospitals, private clubs, housing associations, community organisations etc Insurance Companies have different rules.

The Act says it is unlawful to discriminate against disabled people by refusing to provide (or deliberately not providing) a service, or providing the service on less favourable terms, to a lower standard, or in a worse manner.

The service provider is required to
* make reasonable changes to practices, policies and procedures that make it unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to access their service
* take reasonable steps to get aids to enable disable people to use their service (like a loop system)
*take reasonable steps to alter their premises if they make it unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to access the service or
* provide a reasonable alternative method of making services available

The service provider should not wait until a disabled person wants to use a service before making reasonable adjustments.

The decision on whether an adjustment is reasonable will be based on

whether it would overcome the difficulty that disabled people face in accessing the service;

the extent to which it is practicable for the service provider to take the steps;

the cost of making the adjustment; the disruption the adjustment would cause;

the extent of the service provider's financial and other resources;

the amount already spent on making adjustments; whether there is alternative funding available.

 

You can find out about some of the Part III cases that have been brought under the Disability Discrimination Act here>>

Taking a case further

If you think you have been discriminated against on grounds of disability in the way a service, facility, or goods have been provided, your first step should be to talk to the service provider about the difficulty, if that doesn’t work you may be able to bring a case under part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act.

You can either take your case to Court, or go through a conciliation process.

If you want to take your case to Court you must usually start proceedings within 6 months of the date the discrimination took place.
You need to get an application form and claim pack from the County Court.

You will have to pay £115 to issue the claim unless you are on benefits/low income.
You may want someone to help you with the form, as it is complicated to fill in.

Most claims (for amounts under £5,000) will be dealt with in the Small Claims Court.

You can either represent yourself here, or have a solicitor or someone else represent you, but the process is fairly informal and straightforward.

If you don’t want to go through the difficulty of bringing a Court case, you may want to use the Disability Conciliation Service (DCS). The DCS is free, fairly quick (about 8 weeks), and offers a negotiated settlement using an independent conciliator.
The DCS will try to sort out the problem by talking to you and the service provider.
The solution may involve an agreement to improve the service, it may also involve a settlement in money, but not always.
The process is voluntary, and you or the service provider can end it at any time. You may decide that you want to stop the process and take legal action instead – using the DCS does not stop prevent you from doing this.
You can only use the DCS if you are referred by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. To find out if you can get your case referred, first you need to contact EHRC helpline on and talk to them Monday - Friday 8:00 am-6:00 pm
Telephone: 0845 6046610
Textphone: 0845 6046620

Or write to them:
EHRC Helpline, Freepost RRLL-GHUX-CTRX, Arndale House, Arndale Centre, Manchester, M4 3AQ
Email: englandhelpline@equalityhumanrights.com
Staff will look into your case and decide whether it has a basis in law, and whether conciliation is the best approach. If this is so they will refer your case to the DCS who will discuss it with you.