Duties and responsibilities

Research shows that a very high proportion of people with a learning disability in England are not taking part in the democratic process. Research conducted by United Response shows that as few as 1 in 8 people supported by the charity voted in the 2005 General Election.

The following information explains the legal responsibilities and duties you, as a political stakeholder, have with regard to making democracy accessible to people with a learning disability.

Disability Discrimination Act

When it comes to accessibility the Disability Discrimination Act outlines how service providers need to ensure that their services are accessible to all members of the public.

This applies to all organisations and businesses that provide goods, facilities or services to the public, whether free or paid for, and no matter how large or small these organisations are.

Under this Act, service providers must make 'reasonable adjustments' so that disabled people aren't unfairly disadvantaged when trying to use their services.

These adjustments might involve making changes to physical features of a building, changing the way you communicate with customers, or adding extra help for disabled service users. Organisations and businesses are required to ensure that access to their goods and services, and presentation of all information, takes into consideration the needs of people with a learning disability and those of low literacy.

The Equality Bill

If it becomes law, the Equality Bill will bring together, and make adjustments to, much of the existing equality law.

The Equality Bill (at the time of writing making its way through Parliament) puts a greater requirement on service providers to make 'reasonable adjustments' than existing legislation.

It will mean that the test for whether organisations are making 'reasonable adjustments' will be that their practices must not place a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage. This could mean making special provision for people with a learning disability.

MPs Code of Conduct

Under the Code of Conduct for MPs, Members have a duty to uphold the law, including the general law against discrimination, and to act on all occasions in accordance with the public trust placed in them.

This means that with regard to discrimination law, MPs have a duty to ensure that they take reasonable steps not to disadvantage people with a learning disability.

Disability Equality Duty

The Disability Equality Duty came into force on 4 December 2006. It is intended to ensure that public sector organisations address the inequalities that millions of disabled people face in their lives. It imposes both general and specific duties.

The general duty

The general duty requires public sector organisations to put disability equality at the heart of all aspects of their work. This includes:

• promoting equality of opportunity for disabled people
• eliminating unlawful discrimination
• eliminating disability-harassment
• promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people
• encouraging participation by disabled people in public life
• taking steps to meet disabled peoples needs, even if this requires more favourable treatment.

The specific duties

The specific duties require listed public authorities to publish disability equality schemes that set out how they will carry out their general duty, monitor and report on progress and how they have involved disabled people in developing their scheme.

Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill

This Bill (at the time of writing making its way through Parliament) includes a new duty for local authorities to promote democracy. If it becomes law it will require councils to reconnect people with public and political decision-making, and to ensure that all sections of their community understand how the council works, what the council does and how people can get involved.

Duty to promote democracy

There is evidence that local authorities who actively involve people in decision-making benefit from higher public satisfaction. Councils will be required to ensure that people can find out about and understand how decisions about services that affect them are made, and how to make their voices heard.

Extending the duty to involve

Again, evidence supports the idea that involving citizens in local decision making and the services that affect them is an effective way of driving up the performance of public services. The proposal is to extend the duty to involve to partner authorities and to give citizens and communities more opportunities to have a meaningful say in how things are run.

The overarching recommendation when this Bill was being drafted was that there should be a statutory duty on all principal authorities to facilitate democratic engagement by both proactively disseminating clear and accessible information on how local governance works, and by showing what councils and councillors do, as a way to facilitate more active civic participation.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The UK Government ratified the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in June 2009. The Convention is an international legal document that sets out a recognised international standard for disabled people's human rights. The UK is required to report regularly to the UN about the steps it is taking to protect and promote disabled people's rights.

The convention recognises communication as a human right.

Article 2 For the purposes of the Convention, communication and language are defined as follows:

Article 9 of the Convention, dealing with accessibility, states that the Government should undertake to enable persons with a disability to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life. The Government shall ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to the physical environment, to transport and to information and communications, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public.

Article 29 of the Convention relates to participation in political and public life. It requires the Government to guarantee disabled people political rights and the opportunity to enjoy them on an equal basis with non-disabled people. Specifically it requires the Government to ensure that disabled people can participate fully and effectively in political and public life on an equal basis with others, either directly or through chosen representatives. This includes the right for disabled people to vote and be elected.

The Government is also required to ensure that voting procedures, facilities and materials are accessible and easy to understand and use. They must also protect the right of disabled people to vote by secret ballot in elections and public referendums, and to stand for elections, hold office and perform all public functions at all levels of government, with the use of assistive and new technologies where appropriate. Also, where necessary, and at their request, they must allow a disabled person to be assisted in voting by a person of their own choice.