§ Mr. GoodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what measures his Department is taking to prepare( a) businesses and(b) service providers for the implementation of the parts of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 which come into effect later this year. [160692]
§ Maria EagleWe are making significant changes to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) on 1 October 2004 to improve access to employment and to goods and services for all disabled people in this country. Employers with fewer than 15 staff will be covered by1668W the employment duties for the first time. Service providers will also be under new duties to make reasonable adjustments to physical barriers which prevent disabled people accessing their services.
We are taking action on three fronts to prepare employers and service providers for these changes:
undertaking targeted campaigns using a range of press, broadcast and web-bwed media to raise awareness of the new duties;directly mailing around a million individual small businesses to explain their responsibilities under the DDA and the business benefits of making adjustments for disabled people; andrunning another Access All Areas award to encourage the spread of best practice among service providers.This activity complements the Disability Rights Commission's Open 4 All campaign, which is targeted at small service providers.