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Right to Equal Treatment: Disability Discrimination in Transport
Regulated vehicles
Part 5 of the DDA is concerned with access to certain public transport vehicles and to the infrastructure of transport. This part has been substantially affected by the 2005 Act. When the DDA was passed in 1995 any service so far as it consisted of the use of a means of transport was exempted from Part 3 of the Act. However, not all services associated with transport fell within the exemption. Those associated with transport infrastructure, for example, were covered by Part 3. They therefore were dealt with in the same way as other services. This means that most transport providers have always been subject to Part 3 in respect of certain services provided to the public including services at stations and airports, or information and timetabling services.
Regulations made under the 2005 Act lift the Part 3 exemption in respect of certain types of transport vehicles. These regulations came into force on 4th December 2006. The transport vehicles that are now regulated are:
As with the other parts of the DDA, discrimination by transport providers can occur in 2 possible ways:
Justification
In respect of justifying less favourable treatment, the DDA does not require a transport provider to do anything which would endanger the health or safety of any person. Furthermore, a transport provider is not required to contract with a disabled person who is incapable of entering into a legally enforceable agreement or of giving informed consent. Thus, if a disabled person is unable to understand a particular transaction, a transport provider may refuse to enter into a contract. Another key ground upon which a transport provider could attempt to justify less favourable treatment is where it is claimed that providing a service to a disabled person would mean that it would be unable to provide the service to other members of the public. This approach would also apply where a transport provider not only attempted to deny provision of a particular service but where the service provided was on a lower standard or provided in a worse manner.
Duty to make reasonable adjustments
As to the transport provider’s duty to make reasonable adjustments, all transport providers offering services in relation to the provision or use of a vehicle have a duty to take reasonable steps to change a practice, policy or procedure which makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of those services. They also have a duty to provide an auxiliary aid or service if it would enable (or make it easier for) disabled people to make use of those services. There is no duty to overcome a physical feature unless it is in relation to rental vehicles or breakdown recovery vehicles. The duty to make reasonable adjustments is anticipatory and will require a transport provider to take into account the same factors and considerations as those outlined above in Part 3. Again, it should be noted that there is nothing in the DDA or the 2005 Transport Regulations that would require a transport provider to take any steps which would fundamentally alter the nature of its service, operation, trade, profession or business.
Licensed Cabs
The DDA requires taxi drivers to carry a disabled passenger who uses a wheelchair either while he remains in his wheelchair; or if the passenger chooses to sit in a passenger seat, to carry the wheelchair, to take such steps as are necessary to ensure that the disabled passenger is carried in safety and reasonable comfort, and to give such assistance as may be reasonably required. The DDA also imposes comparable requirements on taxi drivers in relation to the treatment of disabled persons with guide dogs and hearing dogs. The taxi driver may not make any additional charges for doing so.
Buses, Coaches and Rail
Under the DDA the Secretary of State had the power to make regulations covering access to public service vehicles for disabled persons to ensure that disabled persons can get on and off buses and coaches in safety and without unreasonable difficulties and to be carried in such vehicles in safety and reasonable comfort.
The Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000 were brought into force on 30 August 2000. They apply to public service vehicles used to provide local or scheduled services with a capacity exceeding 22 passengers. Small buses and minibuses are therefore excluded, as are vehicles used for holiday tours, day trips or private hire and vehicles that are operated on a commercial basis for hire and reward rather than for ‘public service’.
Rail Transport Regulations mirror those relating to public service vehicles. They apply to new rail vehicles used on railways, tramways, monorail systems or magnetic levitation systems. The DDA (as amended) provides that the Secretary of State set an end date of no later than 2020 by which time all rail vehicles would have to comply with the Regulations.
Part 5 of the DDA is concerned with access to certain public transport vehicles and to the infrastructure of transport. This part has been substantially affected by the 2005 Act. When the DDA was passed in 1995 any service so far as it consisted of the use of a means of transport was exempted from Part 3 of the Act. However, not all services associated with transport fell within the exemption. Those associated with transport infrastructure, for example, were covered by Part 3. They therefore were dealt with in the same way as other services. This means that most transport providers have always been subject to Part 3 in respect of certain services provided to the public including services at stations and airports, or information and timetabling services.
Regulations made under the 2005 Act lift the Part 3 exemption in respect of certain types of transport vehicles. These regulations came into force on 4th December 2006. The transport vehicles that are now regulated are:
- Breakdown recovery vehicles.
- Hire (or rental) vehicles.
- Private hire vehicles.
- Public service vehicles.
- Rail vehicles.
- Taxis.
- Vehicles used on a system using a mode of guided transport.
As with the other parts of the DDA, discrimination by transport providers can occur in 2 possible ways:
- When a transport provider treats the disabled person less favourably, for a reason relating to the disabled person’s disability, than it treats (or would treat) others to whom that reason does not (or would not) apply and that treatment cannot be justified.
- When a transport provider fails to comply with the duty to make reasonable adjustments.
- Where a taxi driver pulling up to a taxi rank refuses to pick up a disabled person whom he knows has epilepsy. Although she is clearly the next person in the queue, the driver gives no reason for refusing to serve her, but picks up another customer instead. A court would be likely to draw an inference of discrimination in the absence of a reasonable explanation.
- A group of deaf people who use British Sign Language is ordered to leave a bus. The bus driver assumes that other passengers might mistake communication using BSL as threatening gestures. This refusal of a service is for a reason related to disability.
- A sightseeing bus operator refuses access to a disabled man with cerebral palsy. It cannot claim that it did not discriminate simply because people with other disabilities were allowed access.
Justification
In respect of justifying less favourable treatment, the DDA does not require a transport provider to do anything which would endanger the health or safety of any person. Furthermore, a transport provider is not required to contract with a disabled person who is incapable of entering into a legally enforceable agreement or of giving informed consent. Thus, if a disabled person is unable to understand a particular transaction, a transport provider may refuse to enter into a contract. Another key ground upon which a transport provider could attempt to justify less favourable treatment is where it is claimed that providing a service to a disabled person would mean that it would be unable to provide the service to other members of the public. This approach would also apply where a transport provider not only attempted to deny provision of a particular service but where the service provided was on a lower standard or provided in a worse manner.
Duty to make reasonable adjustments
As to the transport provider’s duty to make reasonable adjustments, all transport providers offering services in relation to the provision or use of a vehicle have a duty to take reasonable steps to change a practice, policy or procedure which makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of those services. They also have a duty to provide an auxiliary aid or service if it would enable (or make it easier for) disabled people to make use of those services. There is no duty to overcome a physical feature unless it is in relation to rental vehicles or breakdown recovery vehicles. The duty to make reasonable adjustments is anticipatory and will require a transport provider to take into account the same factors and considerations as those outlined above in Part 3. Again, it should be noted that there is nothing in the DDA or the 2005 Transport Regulations that would require a transport provider to take any steps which would fundamentally alter the nature of its service, operation, trade, profession or business.
Licensed Cabs
The DDA requires taxi drivers to carry a disabled passenger who uses a wheelchair either while he remains in his wheelchair; or if the passenger chooses to sit in a passenger seat, to carry the wheelchair, to take such steps as are necessary to ensure that the disabled passenger is carried in safety and reasonable comfort, and to give such assistance as may be reasonably required. The DDA also imposes comparable requirements on taxi drivers in relation to the treatment of disabled persons with guide dogs and hearing dogs. The taxi driver may not make any additional charges for doing so.
Buses, Coaches and Rail
Under the DDA the Secretary of State had the power to make regulations covering access to public service vehicles for disabled persons to ensure that disabled persons can get on and off buses and coaches in safety and without unreasonable difficulties and to be carried in such vehicles in safety and reasonable comfort.
The Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000 were brought into force on 30 August 2000. They apply to public service vehicles used to provide local or scheduled services with a capacity exceeding 22 passengers. Small buses and minibuses are therefore excluded, as are vehicles used for holiday tours, day trips or private hire and vehicles that are operated on a commercial basis for hire and reward rather than for ‘public service’.
Rail Transport Regulations mirror those relating to public service vehicles. They apply to new rail vehicles used on railways, tramways, monorail systems or magnetic levitation systems. The DDA (as amended) provides that the Secretary of State set an end date of no later than 2020 by which time all rail vehicles would have to comply with the Regulations.
