Equality and Human Rights Commission

A transport provider is not required to take any steps which would fundamentally alter the nature of its service, operation, trade, profession or business or where a change may compromise someone’s health or safety.

Example: When health and safety come first

An electric wheelchair user cannot manoeuvre their wheelchair into the space in a taxi so as to allow them to be properly secured and to travel facing forwards or backwards. He wants to travel facing sideways instead. However, this position has been shown to be unsafe and so the taxi driver refuses to carry the wheelchair user.

This refusal is based on genuine concerns for the safety of the disabled person. In these circumstances, the taxi driver’s belief is likely to be reasonably held, and the refusal is therefore likely to be justified.

Example: An adjustment which is unreasonable

As a result of a stroke, Mr Dhaliwal has difficulty walking upstairs or for more than a short distance. Mr Dhaliwal is a regular visitor to his local cafe, which is in a converted terraced house. The cafe is on two floors. There is no lift to the upper floor, but there is seating on both floors and an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Mr Dhaliwal has asked the cafe owner to install a lift as a reasonable adjustment.

The cafe owner, who has no other business, looks into this. He gets estimates from two different builders who both say it will cost about £30,000 to install a lift, which will reduce by 20 per cent the space for seating on both floors.

The adjustment Mr Dhaliwal wants is not likely to be a reasonable one for the cafe owner to have to make. The cafe owner explains the reasons to Mr Dhaliwal and he also makes sure that disabled customers have priority for seating downstairs.

Example: An adjustment which is reasonable

Mrs Ward is a pensioner with a visual impairment. She visits her local museum. The exhibition rooms (the walls, doorways and ceilings) are painted completely white, which is disorientating and makes it difficult for Mrs Ward to find the entrances and exits to the other rooms. She uses the museum’s suggestion box to ask that doorways are painted with contrasting colours. This is likely to be a reasonable adjustment for the museum to make.

The museum acts quickly on the suggestion. They ask both Mrs Ward and the Royal National Institute of Blind People for their views to make sure the new contrasting colour scheme gives the best possible access.