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Complying with the Disability Discrimination Act On the 1st of October 2004 part 3 of the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act comes into effect and it applies to ALL businesses which provide services for members of the public. It matters not whether you run a small shop, a bank, pub, dental surgery, garage, hotel or restaurant or any other business including one which is purely web based you MUST comply.
So what does it mean for your business?
By that date, you must have made ‘reasonable adjustments’ to your premises so that customers with a disability can access your premises, and services, without undue difficulty.
This may mean having to install access ramps, widening doors, removing physical barriers, lowering part of a shop counter, special tables for wheelchair users or an inductive hearing loop for people with hearing difficulties. You will also need to look at such things as the accessibility of your website, car-parking, pathways, public telephones, toilets, stairs, waiting areas, signage and floor coverings and decide whether any of these are not sufficiently user-friendly for your disabled customers. If any of them are going to cause problems for your disabled customers you are going to have to get the builders in!
When you consider that about 1 in 5 of the adult population is classed as disabled, including not only those with physical disabilities but impaired mobility, sensory impairment, learning difficulties and mental health problems, there might be good commercial reasons for making some adjustments.
And if you think making changes to your premises will be expensive, it probably won’t be as expensive at the fine of up to £50,000 you could face if you don’t.
For advice on how the Act might impact on your business contact Woolley & Co.
Reminder
1 October 2004 – New Employee Dismissal Procedure becomes law. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to £55,000. Click here to find out more. |
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Protecting your Business IP (part one) You’ve got a new business idea—it might be a process, some software, a new campaign, a name change or similar. It may well work well. But how do you protect it against someone for example pinching the idea, using the name or logo for a competitive business or just copying it? There are a number of steps you should take and in the next few E-zine’s we’ll look at each in turn.
Step 1 - Confidentiality
An important and often woefully overlooked step is to do all you can to ensure the idea remains confidential. That’s easier said than done when you need to speak to many others to get the idea off the ground. So, get a good confidentiality agreement which really is just a contract whereby the person you give the info to has to keep it confidential or pay you a large amount of damages.
We say “good” confidentiality agreement as many we see are hopeless! They often miss out glaring needs or can sometimes be so extreme as to be totally unenforceable.
Woolley & Co will prepare a bespoke agreement of this type for £150 + VAT but if you contact us before end September we will provide one for just £75 + VAT.
Don’t stop there. Make sure you also look at your employees’ contracts: do they require confidentiality after they leave? What if their spouse works for the competition? It pays to be prepared – and in this instance ever so slightly suspicious!
For further advice on protecting your intellectual property call Andrew Woolley on 01789 267377 or visit our website.
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