Delegates at a Hotel & Catering International Marketing Association (HCIMA) seminar on the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) were told last week that far from presenting hoteliers with additional legislation to labour under, the implementation of the DDA on 1 October will give them access to a market worth £5bn.

Speaking at the Hotel & Catering International Marketing Association’s (HCIMA) DDA seminar last week, Arnold Felwell, consultant with AVF Marketing and a wheelchair user, told delegates: “Many in the hospitality industry mistakenly believe that that implementation of Part III of the DDA is just another piece of legislation that they can ill afford. Quite the contrary: it is a fantastic business opportunity.

“There is a UK market out there worth £5 billion. As a wheelchair user myself, who spends on average 150 nights per year in hotels on business, it is a major challenge for me just to find a hotel equipped with even two guest-rooms with disabled facilities.

“A hotel that caters for the needs of disabled people will win enormous customer loyalty that will lead to repeat business.

“People with disabilities want to feel safe and welcomed – to know, for instance, that they can park easily in a space which allows for wheelchair access, which is close to the hotel; and the facilities are all user-friendly. From personal experience, I can tell you there is nothing worse than a member of staff, who whilst welcoming a guest with disabilities, only looks at the person pushing the wheelchair because they are standing up, ignoring the guest in the wheelchair through not bothering to look down to gain eye contact to greet the customer.”

Felwell said he believed the most important action hoteliers could take to achieve these objectives was staff training.

From 1 October this year, all businesses will have to make reasonable adjustments to improve accessibility for people with disabilities.

Although there is no real definition for ‘reasonable adjustments’, Siobonne Brewster, business development manager for the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) said: “You have to make reasonable changes to the way your service operates so that disabled people can use it.

“If you don’t make these changes and you cannot justify your actions – or inaction – according to the criteria outlined in the DDA, you may be taken to court and made to pay compensation.”

She added that often simple solutions could make a huge difference, and that it must be remembered that there are many different types of disability to be considered.