Annual Report 2005-2006

Activities and Achievements in 2005-2006 and Future Plans

13. In this section, we set out our main activities and achievements over the past year. After this, we outline some key tasks for the coming year. We will do this firstly for the various modes of transport, and then for education and training.

Aviation

14. We have continued our work developing a specification for an onboard wheelchair. This has included pilot testing of the main components of our specification. We are exploiting the lessons learned through full ergonomic testing in the coming year and this will ensure that we know the specification that we publish is fit for purpose in the light of the experience of disabled people themselves.

15. We have also made good progress in our ambitious task of developing a specification for making aircraft toilets more accessible to disabled people. We have met with aircraft manufacturers and operators to take forward this demanding and detailed work, and look forward to publishing this in the coming year.

16. In addition we have responded to an important policy proposal from the European Union on the rights of persons with reduced mobility (Eurospeak for disabled people) when travelling by air. Under the regulation, airport operators will be responsible for providing assistance to disabled passengers. They will then be able to reclaim relevant costs from airlines. We believe that our support helped to ensure that this gained approval during the United Kingdom Presidency. We have started work on helping Gatwick Airport pilot new ground handling arrangements that meet the regulation's requirements.

17. An important part of our work is commenting on the guidance of other bodies. This included a leaflet from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Association of British Travel Agents on accessible travel. The leaflet will become part of the "Know Before You Go" joint initiative. We also advised on a British Health Trades Association and Department for Transport leaflet "Get Wise When You Fly With Your Wheelchair" which gives practical advice to wheelchair users travelling by air. Our Working Group Chair was pleased to be asked to speak at the launch of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association's "International Travel with an Assistance Dog Guidance" which we had helped to develop.

18. We also contributed to the official government response to two United States government proposals of rule making on the use of Medical Oxygen and Portable Respiration Assistive Devices and on the extension of the US Air Carriers Access Act.

19. Working Group Chair Keith Richards gave a number of interviews including one to the BBC's Watchdog programme in relation to a highly publicised incident when 12 visually impaired passengers were put off a plane from Stanstead to Italy. Ryanair has since amended its policy in relation to carrying some visually impaired passengers.

Buses, coaches and community transport

20. We commissioned research on the benefits and cost of extending the statutory concessionary fare scheme, currently limited to local bus services, to Community Transport. We followed this up by preparing a DPTAC statement, which to be published as this report went to press. In addition, the paper suggests that there should be a national pass similar to London's Freedom Pass which allows holders to travel for free on all local public transport at any time.

21. We are currently revising guidance on the accessibility specification for small buses, fewer than 22 passengers. The original guidance, published in 2001, provided separate specifications for vehicles that were used and that were not used on local services. Although the guidance did not specify low-floor, it advised from 2007 that it would be a DPTAC requirement and new guidance would be issued. We plan to publish the new, concise guidance later this year. This will also include guidance for local authorities and operators who provide services using smaller buses.

22. We continue to press government to introduce legislation requiring audiovisual announcements on buses. This would make buses accessible to many people with sensory impairments. We are pleased that Transport for London has taken the initiative of piloting such a scheme, and we look forward to this providing evidence that a such a feature can work anywhere in the country.

23. Concessionary fares have been one important focus of the work of the group in the last year. Building on research that we commissioned, we prepared a discussion paper on the future of concessionary fares which was about to be published as this report went to press.

24. We were pleased that, at the end of the period covered by this report, the government announced that it would be extending concessionary fares for disabled people in England to a national scheme. We were disappointed that time restrictions were not lifted that prevent disabled people from travelling before 9.30 and after 23.00. We will continue to press for these important changes which would particularly help accommodate disabled people who wish to enter, remain in or re-enter the world of work. We also contributed to Department for Transport guidance to disabled people on the changes to the concessionary fare changing it from a half concession to a full free fare.

25. We have also been at work revising our specification for small buses, and bringing together the two documents in which it is currently issued. We plan to publish our clear, consolidated and up to date advice in the coming year.

Maritime transport

26. We concluded and prepared for publication our research into how effective our good practice guidance on the design of large passenger ships and passenger infrastructure to meet the needs of disabled people had been in helping the shipping industry make their services more accessible to disabled people and easier to use for everyone.

27. The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 gave the government new powers to lift the current exemption of shipping services from the general duties on service providers which was provided under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. This would encourage the industry to continue to make improvements to the accessibility of the services they provide. The government will use the results of our research to help them decide whether to use these powers.

28. Recommendations from the research suggested that the guidance which was published in 2000 should be revised to take account of the changes in regulations and specifications. This will form a large part of our work for the coming year. We will work with the industry to produce what we hope will be an easy-to-use, good practice guidance tool. This will constitute practical advice to the shipping industry on inclusive design and how to improve the accessibility of all services provided at ports and on board ships.

29. We worked with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to produce its Action Plan for the European Union Directive 2003/24/EC, published as "Safety Requirements for Persons with Reduced Mobility", and Marine Guidance Note (MGN 306) "Designing and Operating Smaller Passenger Vessels: Guidance on meeting the needs of persons of reduced mobility".

30. MGN 306 is a notice to all naval architects and ship designers, owners, operators, builders and marine surveyors. It helps to ensure that the design and operation of smaller passenger ships meet the needs of people with reduced mobility. It applies to small sea going passenger vessels of less than 500 GT operating on public transport domestic voyages in UK waters, regardless of registry, when certified to carry fewer than 250 passengers.

Personal mobility and local authorities

31. We have finalised our position paper relating to road user charging. The Secretary of State for Transport expressed the government's readiness to consider it and to take into account the personal mobility of disabled people in any future proposals. We will be disseminating the paper to local government organisations and their representatives during 2006.

32. Our research to identify how Home Zones could more sensitively meet the needs of disabled people is well under way. We have identified the areas to be included for survey in the study and we are aiming to present the report findings during 2007.

33. We have been working with the Disability Rights Commission to develop a series of guidance documents to accompany the statutory Codes of Practice and support the implementation of the Disability Equality and Public Authority Duties which is a new legal duty placed on the public sector under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. The Duty is a new practical way for public authorities such as local authorities to tackle disability discrimination by introducing policies that actively promote opportunities to prevent discrimination taking place.

34. The Group has produced a paper on Shopmobility, a scheme that lends powered scooters, and electric or manual wheelchairs, to anyone with limited mobility to allow them to shop and visit leisure facilities or commercial facilities within a town, city or shopping centre. The paper has been produced to encourage local authorities to consider Shopmobility within the Local Plans for their areas; to give support to existing schemes; and actively to encourage the start up of new schemes.

35. We have also been pursuing the Department for Transport about the implementation of our recommendations on the review of the Blue Badge parking scheme. Guidance is being developed to bring into force the new power of inspection provision, as well as other practical improvements to the scheme. Many of our recommendations have now been implemented while others continue to be the subject of further research and consultation. We have taken part in the steering groups on three areas of research; the London exemption, the introduction of a national database, and eligibility aspects of the Blue Badge scheme.

36. The group has responded to consultations on local Transport Notes on traffic calming and Department for Transport guidance on traffic management, and worked on its response to a major consultation on the Highway Code, which included new sections on the use of scooters on roads and pavements.

Rail

37. Rail policy has yet again been a fast moving area for DPTAC, including new government legislation and European Union regulations.

38. We have a statutory role to advise the Secretary of State for Transport on proposed exemptions to the Rail vehicle Accessibility Regulations. Those we dealt with included Gatwick Express, London Underground, and South West Trains. This last caused much press attention which continued into the subsequent year.

39. We also dealt with a number of requests for dispensations from the Code of Practice on Train and Station Services for Disabled Passengers of the former Strategic Rail Authority. These included Birmingham Moor Street, Woolwich Arsenal and Gospel Oak where we considered automatic ticket machines and station signage for a heritage station.

40. We responded to a number of consultations. The most time consuming and detailed was the European Commission Technical Specification for Interoperability: Accessibility for People with Reduced Mobility. This has the potential both to raise and to lower the standards set out in the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations as it will set common minimum standards for rail vehicles on many routes across Europe.

41. For reasons of European Union procedure, DPTAC was the only UK consultee permitted to represent disabled people. We hosted a consultation seminar for the sector that was well received and submitted our formal response to the European Commission in October. The response was endorsed by the 18 UK disability organisations involved in its drafting. The Department for Transport has received a response to the comments made in the consultation but there is no opportunity for further comment.

42. We have advised the industry on a number of projects including the reconfiguration of tables within the wheelchair space of Turbostar trains, an overcrowding study on Victoria Station, refurbishment of GNER's new Mallard trains, and the launch and implementation of the DfT "Access for All" strategy. We have also participated in projects commissioned by the Rail Safety Standards Board on reducing risks related to stepping on and off trains, and at station and barrow crossings.

43. We have also taken part in consultations with expert bodies, including one from Passenger Focus on fares and their corporate plan, and the video and radio launch of Network Rail's "Don't Run the Risk" campaign.

Taxis and private hire vehicles

44. In the run up to the lifting of the Part 3 exemption of taxi and private hire vehicle transport from Part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, we found it timely to revise our advice leaflet for taxi drivers. This work is continuing in parallel with the our work with the Disability Rights Commission on developing advice for the sector.

45. We have taken part in a seminar taking forward the Department for Transport's work on developing the requirements of an accessible taxi and we look forward to the publication of full proposals.

Education and training

46. We successfully launched Inclusive Design resources for primary school teachers. We sent CDs to all primary school design and technology teachers and the resources are also freely available from our website at www.dptac.gov.uk/education/index.htm.

47. We are building on this success and are currently drafting material for Design and Technology teachers of 11- 14 year olds. As with the primary schools, we aim to build on the existing curriculum. The new lesson plans and resources will be launched at regional meetings of local education authorities. The resources will be freely available to all schools.

48. We welcome the Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) decision to mainstream inclusive environments through requiring all schools of architecture to teach inclusive environments as part of the core curriculum. In addition, as part of their continuous professional development, qualified architects will be required to attend courses on inclusive design. We are helping RIBA to develop policies to implement these proposals.

49. We have been scoping a research proposal on training of transport staff which forms part of the Department for Transport's Strategy, Economics and Mobility Research Programme. This work will consider the current availability, provision and trends in training in disability awareness and equality for transport staff, identify and describe good practice and develop a training framework and generic principles for future training.

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