Inclusive environments: Access to commercial property, goods and services — disability-specific access requirements

Abstract

It has been nearly 30 years since the introduction of the first bespoke legislation preventing discrimination against disabled people in accessing commercial property, goods and services. Despite the rise in public awareness of disability promoted by the Paralympics, a global financial crisis, austerity and the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have taken disability rights off both the political and social agendas. Research published in 2020 identified commercial value in providing a truly inclusive built environment and for commercial property owners as well as those delivering goods or services to seek opportunity over obligation in providing above-minimum access. In an attempt to challenge the notion of a ‘one size fits all’ approach to access, this paper analyses disability-specific access needs as well as unpick the term ‘reasonable adjustment’. The paper focuses primarily on the access to buildings and not the accessibility of actual service provision. The paper identifies that the complexity of disability, the wide-ranging symptoms of individual impairments and the prevalence of those with more than one condition validates a one-size approach to designing for disabled people. Furthermore, when comparing the delivery of best practice solutions to facilitate access, the paper demonstrates that the majority of the necessary adjustments are essential (critical) and not just reasonable. While this is based upon the experiential understanding of access challenges by disabled people, it is also worth noting that there exist significant challenges from a service provision perspective in proving an inclusive environment. Removing the existing physical barriers within the built environment may be difficult and costly, and may appear unreasonable for some smaller organisations. Despite this, however, there are a number of relatively low-cost, high-priority adjustments that can make a difference. These, along with more complex adjustments, mean it is necessary to adopt a balanced, pragmatic notion of compromise that facilitates access while still being commercially viable.