Accessing the API

Abstract

The British Disability Rights Commission has issued a ruling that places a burden of responsibility on designers to understand the principles of part three of the Disability Discrimination Act. The commission has announced that, though the full implementation of part three (relating specifically to premises) will not come into force until October 2004, current awareness of its provisions places a duty on designers of new and altered buildings to have due regard to those provisions. This duty is also relevant to the management and operation of existing buildings, even where no construction is occurring at present or is proposed. This significant ruling means that it will be no defense to claim that a building designed before October 2004, but after April 2000, has not taken the full provisions of the act into account. The writer considers the design implications of the act and discusses how the standards it sets out should be applied.