Service for all
by David Grayson, Chairman of the National Disability Council
Coffee Union is a thriving new coffee shop in Bold Street, Liverpool. One of the owners: katie Cowie tells the story of a recent customer who was peering hard at the menu board - and clearly having difficulties. Katie slowly read out the menu and helped the partially sighted customer get their food and find a table. When challenged that she could have served several customers in the same time, Katie replies: "I know that guy will come back because of the friendly treatment and - besides - everyone else in the shop has been observing and everyone says we are really friendly."

Friends who run their own businesses frequently complain about red-tape. Many consider regulation to be a waste of time, irrelevant to their business and involving extra costs.

Small business people rarely see any business benefits in legislation. The Disability Discrimination Act should prove the exception because it balances the needs of disabled people and the concerns of small business. Stephen Alambritis of the Federation of Small Businesses and I are working, with other members of the Government's Disability Rights Task Force, to ensure that this balance is maintained as we consider improvements to disability laws for the future.

There are more than a million disabled people without jobs who want to work - a wide pool of talent from which to recruit. Retaining the experience and expertise of an employee who becomes disabled is more cost-effective than incurring additional recruitment and training costs. The commitment and loyalty that disabled people bring to the workplace is an added bonus. Businesses run the risk of not getting the best person for the job if they ignore or undervalue disabled people.

This is why the Disability Discrimination Act was introduced - to tackle unfair treatment of disabled people. The Act means that all employers with 15 or more employees must not discriminate against disabled employees and job applicants. Reasonable adjustments should also be made to premises or working practices to release the undoubted potential of disabled workers.

Often adjustments require imagination rather than money. Some of the simplest can be lifechanging for disabled people. Large print documents cost almost nothing. An adapted phone can be bought for as little as ?60. Rearranging furniture involves nothing but effort.

A wide variety of help and support - some of it financial - is available from the Employment Service, other Government programmes and from the Federation of Small Businesses.

On the sales side there is also potential. Disabled customers have a collective spending power of around ?40 billion which doesn't take into account the purchasing loyalty of their families and friends.

This is a formidable market and one which many small businesses are in danger of missing out on altogether. If your service isn't accessible to disabled customers, they'll go elsewhere and take their money with them. And they'll tell their friends not to give you their custom. Bad news travels fast.

The access to services provisions of the Act affect everyone that provides goods, services or facilities to the public. All organisations, whatever their size, from the local pub and corner shop to all High Street retailers, will need to review their policies, practices and procedures to make sure that disabled people can use their services. Where reasonable, they should provide auxiliary aids or services.

More red tape! How much will it cost? How is it going to affect the business? What changes are needed? What on earth does 'reasonable' mean?

Compliance with this law does not necessarily have cost implications and those that do arise are likely to be minimal especially if set against potential profits. In practice the law requires only reasonable changes, which in many cases involve nothing more - or less - than treating customers with consideration and respect - the tenet on which most well run businesses are based:

providing chairs for those who find it painful to queue,

extra assistance for someone with cerebral palsy who finds co-ordinated movement a problem,

providing clipboards for disabled people who cannot reach the counter to sign cheques or counterfoils,

rearranging furniture to allow wheelchair access,

providing taped information for a person with dyslexia or a sight impairment,

writing things down for a customer with a hearing impairment.

If disabled customers are well looked after it is more than likely that customer care in general is in pretty good shape. And what could be more important than that?

The final part of the Disability Discrimination Act comes into effect in 2004. Businesses will then have to remove or overcome physical barriers - steps or a narrow doorway for example - if it is impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to access their services.

There is time to plan ahead and seek advice but it would not be prudent to wait until 2004 to act. Recent research showed that around 40% of services providers had made significant physical changes to their premises over the previous five years.

Let's assume that a similar amount of refurbishment is carried out over the next five years. If organisations plan for the access needs of disabled people now, then a large number will already be meeting the new requirements when they are introduced in 2004 without any extra effort. Much cheaper and more effective than retrofits later on!

Well run businesses are fast recognising the commercial benefits of meeting the needs of disabled people. Others need to catch up or they will lose out. Inaction is no longer an option. There is a strong and profitable business case for ensuring that disabled people can be full citizens in both the workplace and society.

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The DDA helpline 0345 622633 can be contacted for further information.

David Grayson is Chairman of the National Disability Council. He is also a director of Business in the Community and the chairman of the Business Link Accreditation Board. He is a member of the Government's Task Force on Disability Rights.