access rights

milo

Had an awful time today when I joined my parents and their foster kids at a large soft play centre. There were 2 steps at entrance and no ramp so my 64 year old dad had to pull myself and wheelchair up them. We asked about disabled toilet to be told it was in the women's toilet ( i'm a 39 year old male) when I went to use it, the staff had to shut entire toilet block as stall not big enough to fit chair in and shut the door. In addition the so called disabled toiled had no hand rails or adaptations. I spoke to manager who showeđ absolutely no interest of concern. I feel that the whole afternoon was spoiled by this and wondered what the regs are for commercial premises and whether it constitutes discrimination. Any help or advice would be very welcome.

ScopeHelpline

We’re sorry to hear that you had this experience. The law that covers this area is called the Equality Act 2010 and it states that business should provide anticipatory reasonable adjustments for disabled customers. This means that they should think in advance of disabled customers and what they may need to provide to remove barriers. These adjustment could be having a unisex accessible toilet with hand rails or making sure the entrance doesn’t have steps. Unfortunately the law is not specific in regards to what these adjustments should be therefore it’s difficult to say whether an organisation is discriminating.
If you want to look into taking this further the best organisation to talk to is the Equality Advisory Support Service, https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/, their number is: 0808 800 0082. They can advise and assist individuals on issues relating to equality and human rights.