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The horrors encountered in Britain by disabled individuals and organizations

British laws fail to give them and foreign visitors any legal protections similar to those Americans and Canadians have long enjoyed

By disabled travel writer Keith A. Forbes at keithaforbes@sky.com. Keith lives in Rattray with his wife Lois.

Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in the UK including Scotland

See http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/RightsAndObligations/DisabilityRights/DG_4001068. 

Ineffectual, completely useless and powerless compared to the USA's powerful and effective Americans With Disabilities Act - see http://www.ada.gov. See a Guide to Applicable ADA laws at http://www.ada.gov/publicat.htm#Anchor-14210. While there is not yet any Canadian equivalent - despite see http://www.canadianswithdisabilitiesact.com. However, this will shortly materialize - see http://www.ccdonline.ca/en/socialpolicy/fda/1006. It will be based on the USA's act to give it some teeth. 

It will not be based on the UK's Act which is recognized by the Departments of Justice in the American and Canadian governments as mediocre and completely toothless. The UK's DDA is regarded as an insult to all disabled North Americans hoping in vain to find, when on business or vacation anywhere in the UK, standards of disability legal protections equivalent to or better than laws applicable in their own countries; a very good reason for them not to travel at all to the UK for the reasons given below until UK laws to help the disabled have improved drastically.

Under the UK's DDA, note this qualification of a disabled person

"Someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities."

• substantial means neither minor nor trivial
• long term means that the effect of the impairment has lasted or is likely to last for at least 12 months (there are special rules covering recurring or fluctuating conditions)
• normal day-to-day activities include everyday things like eating, washing, walking and going shopping
• a normal day-to-day activity must affect one of the 'capacities' listed in the Act which include mobility, manual dexterity, speech, hearing, seeing and memory.
• Some conditions such as a tendency to set fires and hay fever, are specifically excluded.
• Provisions allow for people with a past disability to be covered by the scope of the Act. There are also additional provisions relating to people with progressive conditions.

Perth and Kinross Access Group

It is suggested newcomers who are disabled join and take an active interest to the best of their ability. It represents their interests.

Perth and Kinross Council concerns

• One band council tax banding deduction for disabled.  This is available. It is required under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) for councils to act appropriately and promptly to assist the disabled and reduce council tax banding for those qualified by permanent disability. It is suggested that those disabled who feel they qualify let the Council know, when they apply, if they have previously had a one band council tax banding for the disabled.
• It's been reported that Perth Care and Repair has stopped services through lack of funding, a real shame as it exists specifically to help the elderly and disabled on low incomes.
• Garden Maintenance Service. Run by the Council. It cuts grass and trims hedges for people with disabilities and people over 65. But presently available only to council tenants. Should it be extended to owner occupiers and private tenants as well? This writer believes so. See http://www.pkc.gov.uk/housing by 30 June 2010 to access the Garden Maintenance survey. Note that it asks owner occupiers and private tenants to indicate how much they are prepared to pay weekly for such a service if offered.  

Airport seating misuse by non-disabled

Of the many problems being encountered daily by the disabled is how, at regional and national airports in Britain, seats clearly signposted as reserved for them alone are being grossly abused by non-disabled passengers as these photos show. 

Photos taken the Departures Lounge at London Gatwick by this author, Keith A. Forbes, showing chronic constant abuse of the disabled reserved seating areas by the non-disabled

In February 2006, at this writer's request, his then-MP John Thurso kindly informed the Disability Rights Commission of the exchange of letters he'd had with the British Airports Authority (BAA) arising from my concerns. But the long and short of it is that nothing has been done and these photographs I took will hopefully illustrate to a world-wide audience what is not being done but should be done - as is being done in the USA, Canada, etc - to right these disability wrongs.

It appears BAA do not monitor, as airport authorities in the USA do routinely, and pro-actively deal with the abuse of disabled seating places at BAA airports by non-disabled customers. Under Part 3 of the UK's DDA 1995 providers of goods, facilities and services to the public such as BAA have duties to make only "reasonable" adjustments to physical features of premises, policies, practices or procedure where these make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of goods, services and facilities. These provisions are anticipatory in that they require service providers to think and plan ahead to avoid discrimination against disabled customers. If this is really the case, then it is reasonable for BAA to pro-actively monitor, control and deal with abuse of disabled seating places and by doing so eliminate the difficulty disabled customers experience.

Disabled Parking in Scotland is constantly abused, without police intervention 

This author writes:

"On 15th January 2011 the BBC Scotland's Breakfast included a televised report of disabled parking badges abuses and some minor changes being contemplated. As a severely disabled user myself of a disabled parking badge I viewed the report with great dismay. What can and should be done as a matter of urgency to prevent further, constant abuse of badges? Plenty, if only the government and councils would do it. 

Bring penalties for deliberate abuse up to international code, not the pathetic £60 now. Make it a minimum of £160 - the average in every state of the USA, for first offence, double that for the second, triple plus impoundment of vehicle for the third. Only when scofflaws realize it carries a heavy penalty will they stop. Councils urgently need to make more money. Here's one way to give them the incentive to create enforcement. It is not fair to the truly disabled who have been deprived of a disabled parking space by a miscreant that persons with dogs visiting graveyards can be fined up to £400 by their council for allowing their dogs to foul a graveyard, but for disabled parking miscreants to be fined only £60 - if at all - for a human rights abuse.

Stop immediately this absurd and in other countries such as USA and Canada illegal practice of disabled parking abuses in public places only. The Government and councils should require them to be in shopping malls also. They are where the majority of offences occur, not just in public parking places or on streets.

Make all UK police law enforcement officers, as they are in USA and Canada, with powers to ticket offenders. Here, police seem to be totally indifferent in sad comparison. It's a terrible indictment of the UK for disabled visitors from abroad.

Yes, there should be a better way of ensuring that only the truly disabled get a badge, with no central register. Merely putting the price up from £2.50 to £10 won't do it. The USA and Canada have central registers. They work well.

Disabled people are treated so badly in UK compared to in USA and Canada. I know, I used to work there."

Scotland's laws to protect the disabled from misuse of signed disabled parking places are minimal when compared to laws in the USA and Canada. As merely two examples, the fines are less than a third and parking places in Scottish shopping malls and grocery stores are not legislated at all. Also, police won't act to prosecute violators. 

In a letter to this web writer dated 29 June 2007, Rosemary Mackinnon, then the Highland Council's Equal Opportunities Officer, stated: "Only in an area where charges are made for (public) parking is it an offence, under Section 47 of the Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984 if a person parks in a designated parking space without a blue badge; and then only for parking incorrectly, namely failing to observe "blue badge only" restrictions, not for deliberately depriving a blue badge holder of such spaces. (Note: The offence in Scotland is £60, applied only in rare cases because more often than not there will not be anyone there to write a ticket to prosecute for a deliberate violation.) In public parking areas, such as Highland Council car parks, where there is no charging for parking and therefore no Traffic Order under which to impose a fine, disabled parking bays are provided on an advisory basis only and rely on the cooperation of local motorists to keep them available for disabled drivers.

In comparison, here is how New Jersey, USA does it.

http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/dds/publications/GUIDE%20TO%20HANDICAPPED%20PARKING.pdf.

In Scotland, dog owners who allow their dogs to foul graveyards can be fined up to £500 as this notice currently displayed at the Brora Highland Council graveyard - and other graveyards - shows. But the maximum fine for non-disabled miscreants who park illegally in Disabled-only Parking spaces is only £60. These photographs were sent by this author to every Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Highlands and Islands. None replied.

Also, in the photograph above of a Blairgowrie Perth and Kinross Council car park on Leslie Street, those who don't comply with the sign can can fined up to £1000. And if you don't pay your annual compulsory TV License you can also be fined up to £1,000. This website believes that those who park illegally in disabled parking spaces should also be fined up to £1,000, not a paltry £60.   

In his letter dated 4 May 2006 addressed to the writer of this website, Bert Massie CBE, then Chairman of the UK's Disability Rights Commission - see http://www.drc-gb.org - says in part: "I have experienced the strong enforcement exercised in the USA and Canada which ensures that parking bays for disabled motorists are only occupies by those people for whom they were designed. I would certainly welcome similar legislation in this country. As a wheelchair user myself and a driver I too am constantly frustrated by non-disabled people stealing disabled people's parking bays. The growing anger of disabled people is entirely understandable and I have called on several occasions for stronger law enforcement."

Dear Mr Forbes.

15th February 2011. Thank you for your email about the rights of the disabled. I'm afraid that the Scottish Law Commission is not undertaking work in this area of law under our current programme of law reform and we are therefore unable to offer any assistance. You may wish to contact the Scottish Government with your suggestion if you have not already done so. Yours sincerely, Nick Brotchie, Library, Scottish Law Commission, 140 Causewayside, Edinburgh EH9 1PR

Disabled organizations in the UK include the following

A

B

C

D

E

F-G

H

I-L

M

N-Q

O-Q

R

S

T to Z

Written, administered and web-mastered in Blairgowrie, Scotland, by

Keith A. Forbes, at keithaforbes@sky.com  
© 2012. Revised: February 5, 2012