Disability Access to Historic Buildings

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Published on HSfB 29 May 2005

The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 (DDA) now makes it unlawful for businesses and organisations providing services to treat disabled people less favourably than other people for a reason related to their disability. Service providers, now including private members' clubs with 25 or more members, have to consider making changes to physical features that make it difficult for disabled people to use their services. You can remove the physical feature, alter it, find a way of avoiding it or provide the service another way. This may prove difficult for various historic buildings as they may be listed, however, reasonable adjustments must be assessed. Although historic buildings are protected in order to retain their original character, imaginative and inventive solutions to provide an acceptable level of access to an historic building can be achieved successfully. Liaison with the planning authorities, environmental authorities and fire authorities from the beginning is essential for a thorough and acceptable solution of easy access for all.

There is legal requirement to preserve the character of an historic listed building; however, it may mean that on rare occasions not all of these objectives can be achieved. For example, the interventions necessary to permit every part of a ruined medieval castle to be fully accessible would be so harmful to its character as to destroy the pleasure of visiting the building for all.

It may be appropriate for a disabled person to have less favourable access to a building only if the alternative is to have no access at all. For example, providing an alternative route through the building rather than the main thoroughfare might be justified if the modifications required to adapt the main route would be too damaging to the historic building. Similarly, directing disabled people to another fully accessible entrance might be justified if, for example, the arrangements necessary to gain access to the principal entrance would compromise the architectural merit of the historic building. Thought could be given to making this accessible entrance into the principal entrance, thus avoiding discrimination and benefiting all visitors.

What is reasonable?

The following factors from the DDA Code of Practice might be taken into account when considering whether the adjustment is reasonable:

whether taking any particular steps would be effective in overcoming the difficulty that disabled people face in accessing the services in question
the extent to which it is practicable for the service provider to take steps
the financial and other costs of making the adjustment
the extent of any disruption which taking the steps would cause
the extent of the service provider's financial and other resources
the amount of any resources already spent on making adjustments
the availability of financial or other assistance i.e. grants or other funds

As a first instance during the initial stages of any accessibility project, an access audit should be carried out by a competent specialist access consultant preferably one registered with the National Register of Access Consultants. Alternatively, the access audit could be carried out by building professionals experienced in historic buildings, or owners confident in their knowledge of the building and potential barriers to access.

However the access audit is carried out, it will require careful thought to explore all possible solutions to allow access for all into the building. The DDA proposes four ways in which access for disabled people can be incorporated:

Remove the obstacle
Alter it so it no longer has that effect
Provide a reasonable means of avoiding the feature
Provide a reasonable alternative method of making the service in question available to disabled people. (This aspect has been in force since October 1999)

John Johnston MIIRSM Grad IOSH - HSfB

Article references:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2005/20050013.htm - The Disability Discrimination Act 2005

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/Pages/default.aspx - Equality and Human Rights Commissio

National Register of Access Consultants NRAC