A woman in Kent received large-print utility bills because she
is partially blind. She then began
receiving other people's bills in Braille format, and became
worried about others receiving her bills. She said that she had
recently been a victim of identity theft.
That woman's experience highlighted the issue of alternative
format communications, and the degree to which companies have to
supply them.
It is a legal obligation to offer services to people with
disabilities without any discrimination related to their
disability, according to the Disability Discrimination Act
(DDA).
"Businesses who provide services must make a reasonable
adjustment [for people with disabilities], and that can mean
providing correspondence in Braille, large print or any other
format," said a spokeswoman for the Disability Rights Commission
(DRC). "They have a legal obligation to do that."
Companies cannot get around changing their services to make them
accessible by declining to provide them to disabled people.
Companies can challenge what is 'reasonable' under the Act,
though.
"They can bring a challenge and argue that something is not
reasonable," said the spokeswoman. "Only a court can decide what is
unreasonable."
The spokeswoman said that the DRC receives many requests for
action on the provision of, or the failure to provide, alternative
format bills. "Companies should be providing alternative format
bills, and I know that we certainly support people with this
issue." She said that the DRC had handled three formal disputes on
the matter, two with banks and one with an energy supplier.
The DDA says: "It is unlawful for a provider of services to
discriminate against a disabled person … in refusing to provide, or
deliberately not providing, to the disabled person any service
which he provides, or is prepared to provide, to members of the
public".
If a practice, policy or procedure makes it impossible or
unreasonably difficult for disabled persons to make use of a
service, the provider has a duty "to take such steps as it is
reasonable, in all the circumstances of the case, for him to have
to take in order to change that practice, policy or procedure so
that it no longer has that effect."
The Act also provides that where an auxiliary aid or service,
"for example, the provision of information on audio tape or of a
sign language interpreter," would enable disabled persons to make
use of a service, the service provider must take reasonable steps
to provide that auxiliary aid or service.
Some of the remedies can be expensive, and could prove difficult
for some small businesses to implement. The DRC spokeswoman said
that the law and the courts were likely to take a reasonable and
pragmatic view of the reality facing a company. "Someone like Marks
and Spencer would have different obligations to a single high
street shop, for example," she said. "They will often be able to
find a solution that suits the business and the person which won't
put the company out of business."
