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Access for People with a Disability
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)
The Australian Government's Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) has been in effect since March 1993. The DDA prohibits discrimination against people with a disability or their associates in a range of areas including transport, education, employment, accommodation and premises to which the public is entitled to enter or use.
The DDA is complaints-based (as opposed to compliance-based) legislation. To date, the intent and objectives of the DDA have not been supported by detailed technical requirements, so there is no clear way to ensure that a building complies with the DDA.
The Building Code of Australia (BCA)
The BCA is developed and maintained by the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) on behalf of the Australian Government and the State and Territory Governments of Australia, each of whom have statutory responsibility for building control and regulation within their jurisdiction. The BCA is a comprehensive statement of the performance and technical requirements relevant to the design and construction of buildings and other related structures. The BCA is therefore a national code, administered at a state and territory government level.
The BCA contains specific provisions for access to and within buildings, for people with a disability. The BCA applies to building work on both new and existing buildings.
The Problem
The need to review the relationship between the DDA and the BCA stems from the following:
- The DDA contains intent and objectives but not the technical details of how to provide access for people with a disability;
- The current technical requirements of the BCA are not considered to meet the intent and objectives of the DDA; and
- The existence of two legislative requirements in relation to access for people with a disability to buildings, being the BCA and DDA, clearly gives rise to potential inconsistencies.
In April 2000, an amendment was made to the DDA to allow the Australian Government's Attorney-General to formulate 'Disability Standards for Access to Premises' (Premises Standard). Disability Standards will help to clarify accessibility requirements under the DDA.
The ABCB was requested by the Australian Government to develop proposals for a revised BCA, to enable it to form the basis of a draft Premises Standard. The ABCB established the Building Access Policy Committee (BAPC) to recommend changes to the BCA, to consult widely with industry and the community, and to provide advice to the ABCB on access-related issues.
Through the BAPC and its Technical Working Group, the draft Premises Standard was developed with wide stakeholder input to achieve a negotiated set of proposals for public comment. Once the Premises Standard has been formulated, the BCA will be amended so that the technical details of each document mirror each other. In future, compliance with the access provisions of the BCA will mean compliance with the Premises Standard and hence the DDA.
The Current Situation (March 2010)
On 2 December 2008, draft Disability (Access to Premises - Buildings) Standards, together with a number of associated documents, were tabled in the House of Representatives.
The Government referred the draft Premises Standards to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs and asked the Committee to conduct consultations on the draft Premises Standards and to report to Parliament in the first half of 2009.
The Committee's report was tabled in the House of Representatives on 15 June 2009. A copy of the report can be accessed at www.aph.gov.au/laca.
The Government tabled its response to the report and launched the Premises Standards on 15 March 2010.
The Premises Standards will commence operation on 1 May 2011, in line with the adoption by States and Territories of the 2011 edition of the BCA which will be revised to align with the Access Code in the Premises Standards.
A copy of the Premises Standards and related documentation can be obtained from the website of the Attorney-General’s Department at http://www.ag.gov.au/.