The court considered the meaning of the ‘duty to provide a reasonable alternative method’.
Held: The policy of the 1995 Act was to provide access to a service as close as it was reasonable possible to get to the standard offered to the public at large, and so far as reasonable practicable to approximate the access enjoyed by disabled persons to that enjoyed by the rest of the public.
The defendant train company was found to have failed to comply with its reasonable adjustments duty in not making arrangements for a free taxi, so that wheelchair users – who could not use the footbridge nor reasonably navigate the half-mile detour along Station Lane – could access eastbound trains from Thetford, rather than the alternative relied on by the train company (a 60 minute-plus train journey west to Ely to change platforms there and travel back eastwards).
Buxton LJ said: ‘Steps might be unreasonable for a person to take if they unreasonably impact on third parties.’
Sedley, Buxton, Jacob LJJ
[2004] EWCA Civ 1541, (2005) 21 Const LJ 456, (2004) 104 Con LR 62
Bailii
Disability Discrimination Act 1995
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Ross v Ryanair Ltd and Another CA 21-Dec-2004
The claimant said that the airline and airport had failed to provide proper access arrangements for him as a disabled person. No wheelchair had been provided to transfer him through the airport to the airplane.
Held: It was the duty of both . .
Cited – Firstgroup Plc v Paulley CA 8-Dec-2014
The claimant a wheelchair user had been unable to travel on a bus when a mother had left her sleeping child in a pushchair. The mother said she was unable to fold down the pushchair, and would not move the child. The claimant said that the driver . .
Cited – Rowley, Regina (on The Application of) v Minister for The Cabinet Office Admn 28-Jul-2021
Failure to Provide Signers was Discriminatory
The claimant challenged the failure of the respondent to provide sign language interpreters to accompany public service broadcasts during the Covid pandemic. The parties agreed that the steps taken for later broadcasts had satisfied the . .
Cited – Firstgroup Plc v Paulley SC 18-Jan-2017
The claimant wheelchair user alleged discrimination by the bus company. The space reserved for wheelchair users on a bus had been wrongly occupied by a passenger who refused to vacate the space. The claimant said that the bus driver should have . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 07 August 2021; Ref: scu.220294