Design For Dignity
Retail Guidelines

Guidance on premises

Employee areas

Under the DDA it is illegal to discriminate against a person on the grounds of disability. In an employment context this means that workplaces need to be accessible unless it would create unjustifiable hardship to the employer.

Back of house area

Many stores have a ‘back of house’ area for staff members to sign in, store their gear or even get changed and eat meals. The same considerations that apply to the customer areas of a store apply to the back-of-house areas:

• Is the path of travel including doors accessible?
• Do the staff bathroom facilities have an accessible toilet (in premises or the centre)?
• Is a range of lockers available at an accessible height?
• Do any kitchen facilities allow access for a person using a mobility device or wheelchair?

Dangerous places

The BCA and Disability (Access to Premises — Buildings) Standards Section D3.4 provides that some areas (and travel to them) need not meet full accessibility standards based on it being ‘inappropriate’ because of its specific use, or that would ‘pose a health or safety risk for people with a disability’. The Australian Capital Territory has additional provisions.

Deciding that an area is ‘inappropriate’ or would ‘pose a health or safety risk’ is an exemption from the BCA that a building surveyor or certifier would decide based on evidence provided during the approval of a building or workplace. It is not sufficient to just decide that the premises doesn't need to be accessible because of perceived safety concerns.

The sorts of examples contemplated by the Explanatory Statement^{*Explanatory Statement — Disability (Access to Premises—Buildings) Standards 2010 p34.} are “rigging lofts, waste containment areas, foundry floors, loading docks, fire lookouts, plant and equipment rooms and other similar areas”.