Duties Under The Act
Businesses have to tailor there goods and facilities to provide reasonable access to there services for people with disabilities.

Reasonable Adjustments
The Code of Practice explains the changes that constitute reasonable adjustments including:-
· provide a reasonable alternative method of making services available to disabled people where a physical feature makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of them.
· provide an auxiliary aid or service if it would enable (or make it easier for) disabled people to make use of services.
· Policies, procedures and practices

Auxiliary Aids And Services
The Act gives two examples only of auxiliary aids or services: the provision of information on audiotape and the provision of a sign language interpreter. The Code of Practice usefully expands on this, identifying, for example, specially designed shopping baskets and trolleys in supermarkets for wheelchair users and others with reduced mobility; hand-held bar code readers with synthesised voice output to enable visually impaired shoppers to compare goods and prices; personal assistance in shops or petrol stations; portable ramps; plain language guides with text and pictures for visitors to museums who have learning disabilities; a text phone where there is a telephone booking service; teletext subtitles for television programmes. The Code of Practice gives guidance on what might be considered reasonable in the circumstances, taking account of the type of service, the nature of the service provider and its resources and the effect of the disability on the individual disabled person.
The Code of Practice spells out the range of auxiliary aids or services it might be reasonable to provide to improve communication with people with hearing and sight impairments.

Physical Features
The split between the October 1999 and 2004 implementation dates for reasonable adjustments is the aspect of Part III that will cause most problems for service providers. While intended to help businesses with an extended lead-in time to plan and budget for alterations to premises, in practice the split is arbitrary and problematic. The Code of Practice says that a service should be provided by a reasonable alternative method if a physical feature makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult to access in the regular way.

A 'physical feature' is defined as including:
· any feature arising from the design or construction of a building on the premises occupied by the service provider
· any feature on those premises of any approach to, exit from or access to such a building
· any fixture, fittings, furnishings, furniture, equipment or materials in or on such premises
· any fixtures, fittings, furnishings, furniture, equipment or materials brought onto premises (other than those occupied by or on behalf of the service provider) in the course of (and for the purpose of) providing services to the public
· any other physical element or quality of land comprised in the premises occupied by the service provider.

Problems And Issues.
Service providers should plan ahead by taking any opportunities which arise, or bringing forward plans, to make alterations to their premises to benefit disabled people before 2004'.

Access Audits
The Code of Practice encourages the auditing of physical and non-physical barriers to access for disabled people. An access audit and the resulting access improvement plan are, the best way of ensuring that a building achieves its potential for accessibility, this varying from one building to the next.
ACP have trained surveyors in this area and have carried out audits dating back to 1998 for Royal Mail Property Holdings and over the last five years for organisations such as NCP Ltd and various local authorities.