As promised by central government and recommended by the Disability Rights
Taskforce a consultation has been launched to introduce new legislation to
cover the provision of education. The consultation can be viewed at
http://www.dfee.gov.uk/sen/consult.doc

some of the key parts relating to access to the built environment are:

The provisions on rights for disabled people in education will apply -
except for the duty on education providers in the schools sector to plan
systematically to increase accessibility - to England, Wales and Scotland
since equal opportunities issues are matters reserved to the UK Parliament.
 The duty to plan in this regard is a devolved matter.  It will be for
Scottish Executive Ministers to consider the application of this policy in
Scotland.  This, too, will be the subject of separate consultation.  The
Bill will legislate to apply the planning duty to Wales though it will be
for the National Assembly to consider implementation.  This consultation is
taking place on the same basis and at the same time in England, Scotland
and Wales.

An education provider will not be required to do anything under the new
duties that will result in a breach of legal obligations under other
legislation or enactment.  For instance, education providers might have to
obtain statutory consents before making adjustments involving changes to
premises, such as approval under the Building regulations (in Scotland, a
building warrant), planning permission, listed building consent, scheduled
monument consents and fire regulations approval.  The new duties will not
over-ride the need to obtain such consents.  The education provider will
not have to make an adjustment if it requires statutory consents for which
he has applied and it has not been given.  All new buildings are already
required to comply with Part M of the Building Regulations (in Scotland,
Part T of the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations).

In many cases, the need to make adjustments for disabled children and
students arises because their needs have not been considered in advance.
There are many instances where forward planning removes the need for
adjustments in future and will usually be more cost-effective.  For
example, although it might be unreasonable to introduce colour contrasting
throughout a building to assist an individual disabled person who is
visually impaired, it would cost very little to do this when the building
is being redecorated.  The new duties will include a requirement for
institutions to think about the needs of disabled students in advance.
This will reduce the number of adjustments that need to be made on an
ad-hoc basis in response to an individual disabled student, thus creating
an environment where provision for disabled pupils and students is seen as
on a par with, and not different from, that for other pupils and students.

2. the new legislation would make it unlawful for an education to
discriminate against a disabled child by
c. failing to take reasonable steps to provide education using a reasonable
alternative method where a physical barrier places a disabled child at a
substantial disadvantage compared to a non disabled child.


In England and Wales, there will also be a new duty on education providers
to plan systematically to increase the accessibility of schools for
disabled children.   In Scotland, planning for access is devolved and, as
described at paragraph 12, the Scottish Executive will consider proposals
to introduce this measure in due course.     

where physical features of premises place a disabled pupil - for example
with limited mobility -  at a disadvantage in comparison with non-disabled
children, the school should be required to do everything it reasonably can
to mitigate the effects of the feature and provide the pupil with the
educational service. The school will not be required to remove or alter the
physical features of premises.
Examples: A library is located on the top floor of a school which has no
lift.  The school should consider relocating that library to an accessible
ground floor room if that is something that can reasonably be achieved.  If
it is not reasonable for the school to do this, it should consider taking
reasonable steps to ensure that a disabled child can have access to the
information and other facilities in the library.  This might include
providing the pupil with a list of titles in the library and arranging for
the books to be brought down to him where he can read them in a quiet room.  
A school has a disabled pupil with a mobility-related impairment.  It
should consider  taking reasonable steps to ensure that all his classes are
timetabled to take place in classrooms which are accessible to him.  
This duty, and the preceding duty to make reasonable adjustments to
policies, practices and procedures, are as far as possible, anticipatory
(as recognised by the DRTF in its recommendation 4.5).  Schools should
recognise that disabled children may join the school, anticipate the
obvious consequences of their physical features or the effect that their
policies, practices and procedures may have for disabled pupils and ensure
that, 
where it is reasonable for them to do so, their policies, practices and
procedures are not such as would prevent them from receiving the same
education as other children at the school.   


Adrian Higginbotham.
SURFACE, Salford University, Research Focus on ACcessible Environments.
http://www.scpm.salford.ac.uk/surface/
tel: 0161-2954939
tele-work 01625-263590
mini-com 0161-2953599
fax: 0161-2955011

University of Salford, Bridgewater building, Salford, M7 9 NU.



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