DDB 90 Janice Tillett
Submission
by Janice Tilleett to the
Joint Committee
on the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill
Janice R Tillett
Telephone 01604 709129
Dear Sirs
As a Voluntary Director
of national charity Deafblind UK and as a Deafblind person I would
like to make the following comments re the draft Disability Discrimination
Act.
Firstly under the meaning
of disability I consider that there should be an acknowledgement
of dual sensory impairment - at present I believe it states sensory
impairment thus implying that only one sense can be impaired -
many people have a dual sensory impairment or who are deafblind.
With reference to the
part in the act where it says that registered blind and partially
sighted people are conclusively disabled - no mention of dual
sensory impaired or deafblind people as being classed conclusively
as a disabled person.
Throughout the act the
word "reasonable" is used a lot in context of reasonable
adjustments etc. I consider that the word reasonable is
often used very loosely and is not positive enough. There
are many problems because many people's idea of reasonable are
very different.
I did like how extra provision
was quantified in price i.e. it costs £1.50 to produce a
tape for a blind person. As you know making provision for
people with sensory impairment does no cost businesses a fortune.
Is there anyting in the act re staff training and the "small"
things that staff can do to enable a dual sensory impaired person
to use their services i.e. provision of loops or simply just being
able to speak clearly.
If you have any further
queries or want to discuss the act in context of people with a
dual sensory impairment then please do not hesitate to contact
me or national charity Deafblind UK as it is felt that the needs
of people with a dual sensory impairment are often overlooked
and we would like the government to alleviate these problems by
amending the law.
Yours faithfully
Janice Tillett
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