What does the DDA say about Braille?

All businesses and organisations need to be aware of their obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). Read on for more information …

In brief, the DDA says that service providers should make “reasonable adjustments.” Disabled people can claim against service providers if a failure to do this makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to use their service.

This means that your publicly available information should be provided in an accessible format. However, the act does not specify that it has to be the disabled persons’ preferred format (e.g. Braille) - it will depend on the circumstance in each individual situation.

Confusion surrounding the DDA is often centred on the phrase “reasonable adjustments”. What is considered “reasonable” will often depend on the size, and financial situation, of an organisation or company. For example the level of accessibility expected to be provided by a small shop is largely different to the service expected from a large hotel.

In relation to the services provided by A2i, for example, a small restaurant that changes their menu daily may not be expected to provide Braille and Large Print menus. On the other hand, it would probably be considered reasonable for a larger restaurant, or chain of restaurants, to provide this service. Nevertheless, the smaller establishment could invest in a Braille or Large Print wine list, or Braille and tactile signage on the toilet doors to increase the accessibility of their venue.

Remember: aside from your legal obligations, providing documents in a visually impaired persons preferred format will improve your customer service levels and general company image.

For more information see http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1995/1995050.htm

Meet A2i Staff and enter our competition!

A2i will have a stand at the SKILL conference on November 26th.

Read on for details of our competition for the conference and how to win!

The SKILL conference is taking place in Nottingham on 26th-27th November. A2i have a stand at the conference exhibition on Monday 26th, and we are looking forward to this opportunity to meet more of our customers and show our products and services.

We will

• have a live demonstration of Daisy transcription
• have shop products and Braille and tactile signage on display
• have examples of our Braille, Large Print, Audio, e-text and Moon on show
• and we are running a competition to win a personalised Braille and Tactile name plate!

Visually impaired teacher wins DDA case

Is your organisation making all the reasonable adjustments it can for disabled staff and customers? If not, you could be taken to court under the Disability Discrimination Act and receive a very large fine, as demonstrated by the test case detailed below:

A visually impaired teacher ran in to difficulties when her employer refused to provide documents for her in Large Print. The documents, for example lesson timetables, where needed for her job, and the situation arose over a period of a few years.

The Disability Rights Commission supported the teacher in fighting her case against her employer, and in 1994 she was awarded compensation of £196,000.

In addition, this case established that the Disability Discrimination Act covers constructive dismissal and that payment of sick pay is subject to reasonable adjustment. (source: Disability Now November 07)

Many people, incorrectly, believe that providing Large Print documents simply involves enlarging the text. However, there are a range of other factors that need to be considered when transcribing to large print, such as:

• Alignment
• font styles, colours and weights;
• use of emphasis such as italic;
• paper weight;
• colour and type of printing;
• and layout features such as use of columns.