I am looking for somewhere to ask a specific question on the Equality Act and Disability Access. Does anybody know of such a forum please?

Contact me with your question and I will try to answer it for you (or find somebody that can). Regards. DJ

Decimomal this is a health and safety forum. Equality Act is under the H&S umbrella therefore chances are that someone on here will have the answer. In fact I am confident we will provide many answers to your question :-) As Bob says - ask the question here.

Query is: Hotelier concerned about disability access. The scenario is that they do not have any bedrooms on the ground floor and access to upper floors is via a lift that will not accommodate a wheelchair. They are worried that they may fall foul of the Equality Act and are seeking advice. Would a disability access statement suffice or would they be expected to do something more ?

IMO it would be reasonable to apply for funding to build a ground floor bedroom that could be accessed by wheelchair users. The cost of the build would be recouped probably within one year, the room can be rented out to non disabled as well if no wheelchair users book in. The point is the hotel must not make it worse for a wheelchair user as opposed to non wheelchair user to be accommodated. Hotels are regularly used by wheelchair users so it cannot be accepted for the hotel to ignore the needs of the wheelchair user.

Do they have a written Policy? They should have, and if they do what does it say about disabled access and facilities? If I was a wheelchair user and wanted to book in to that hotel they cannot refuse on the grounds that they do not have facilities for wheelchair users. Believe me, I've looked into this and recently won a Tribunal for discrimination against a wheelchair user. The other side had a Barrister - I didn't but still won.