Disabled access and facilities in business premises

You may need to make alterations and changes to physical features to accommodate staff with a disability. If the physical feature puts disabled employees at a disadvantage, you must adjust it to remove or reduce the impact of the physical barrier. These alterations are known as reasonable adjustments.

Reasonable adjustments for staff

These steps could include, where reasonable, making structural or physical changes to your business premises, such as:

• widening doorways to allow a wheelchair to pass through easily
• replacing steps with ramps
• relocating light switches and door handles to a level that considers people who have difficulty in reaching
• putting in place audio-visual fire alarms
• providing accessible toilet facilities for disabled employees

These reasonable adjustment steps also involve allowing the person to work in a more easily accessible place, such as by:

• transferring a wheelchair user's workstation from an inaccessible upper floor to the ground floor
• allowing a disabled job applicant to be interviewed in an accessible room
• providing specially modified equipment, such as a special keyboard adapted for someone who has arthritis, or a telephone adapted for someone with a hearing impairment

Employer's legal duties to make reasonable adjustments

If you are an employer, you have duties under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 not to discriminate against and to make reasonable adjustments for your employees or job applicants with a disability.

The employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act apply to all employers, regardless of size, except service in the armed forces.

The reasonable adjustment duties under the employment provisions are not anticipatory and therefore you are only required to consider the needs of an actual disabled employee or, in the case of the recruitment process, a disabled job applicant. Reasonable adjustments in the workplace - Disability Action guidance.

Download the disability code of practice for employers (PDF, 926K).

Do you need to make an adjustment to a physical feature?

You only need to make adjustments to your business premises if a disabled employee would otherwise be at a substantial disadvantage to that of a non-disabled employee. Before making the reasonable adjustment, you could consider:

• the extent to which the disadvantage would be alleviated
• the cost of making the adjustment
• what financial resources your business has access to
• whether you have access to external resources to help you bear the cost
• whether adjustments have been made for other disabled employees
• how willing the disabled employee is to co-operate with any adjustment you make

See reasonable adjustment - Equality Commission guidance.

Advice and support for hiring disabled people

The Access to Work programme provides practical support to disabled people to help overcome barriers in the workplace. It can also provide help to employers.

Workable (NI) provides supported job opportunities for disabled people who face more serious obstacles in obtaining or retaining a job. This helps them access the support they need to work effectively.