Disability Discrimination Act

The Department for Transport (DfT) reviewed the transport exemptions that currently exist under the Act that exclude passenger shipping and aviation from key parts of the law. Despite recommendations made by the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) that shipping as well as aviation should be brought within the Act, the decision was made to keep the exemption for the time being. This decision followed benchmarking studies into the practical experiences of passengers using both modes of transport. While these showed that disabled people were still experiencing problems these were mainly in areas of service already covered by the Act and could be dealt with there. These would not be affected by any extension of the existing Act. It was also felt that voluntary initiatives such as the DfT Air Access Code and ABTA’s checklist for disabled and less mobile customers, coupled with the new EU Regulations on access to air travel, already provided a good level of legal protection and good practice in other service areas.

ABTA’s Position

ABTA continues to be directly involved in discussions with DPTAC and the DfT over the position of maritime (particularly cruise) and aviation as international modes of transport and the dangers of bringing them within a domestic legal framework (see Disabled Air Access). We are monitoring proposed new EU Regulations on rights for maritime passengers.

Last updated: 03 August 2009