A major new survey published by a national charity has revealed that thousands of businesses across the country are under threat of court action under the new Disability Discrimination Act.
The Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) has carried out a nationwide review of small to medium-sized businesses and has discovered that a month after the new regulations came into force a staggering 75% firms have still not made any changes.
The findings mean thousands of businesses are at risk of court action under the new disability legislation which came into force on October 1.
Although 58% of businesses questioned were aware of the implications of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), an improvement on similar research carried out a year ago by RNID, few had taken any practical steps to accomodate deaf and hard of hearing customers using their services.
Dr John Low, RNID chief executive, said: "RNID expected to see small businesses make significant changes in order to meet the requirements of the new disability legislation.
"This research shows there is much that remains to be done to encourage small businesses to make the simple, cost-effective changes necessary to embrace the needs of disabled customers."
To help tackle the problem the RNID has launched a new scheme which will provide businesses with free deaf and disability awareness training and free fact sheets on how to comply with the new legislation.
Stephen Alambritis, from the Federation of Small Businesses said: "Whilst there is high awareness amongst FSB membership, many more small businesses need to come up to speed on how to comply with the DDA."
The RNID say businesses can help deaf and hard of hearing people by such things as installing a permanent induction loop for hearing aid users or supplying a pen and paper to help ease communication.
For further information on products and services for deaf and hard of hearing people contact RNID's Information Line on 0808 808 0123 (freephone) or 0808 808 9000 (textphone) or email informationline@rnid.org.uk
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