Disability Equality Scheme
Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) is committed to promoting
Equality and valuing Diversity. RBH aims to improve community
wellbeing throughout the borough of Rochdale, deliver a
value-for-money service and enable tenants views to be
heard.
At present disabled people do not have the same opportunities or
choices as non-disabled people. Nor do they enjoy equal respect or
full inclusion in society on an equal basis. The poverty,
disadvantage and social exclusion experienced by many disabled
people is not the inevitable result of their impairments or medical
conditions, but rather stems from attitudinal and environmental
barriers.
RBH will remove barriers that obstruct disabled people and will
comply with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. RBH, like
other public authorities, when carrying out our functions,
will:
- promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and
other persons
- eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Act
- eliminate harassment of disabled persons that is related to
their disabilities
- promote positive attitudes towards disabled persons
- encourage participation by disabled persons in public life;
and
- take steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities,
even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably
than other persons.
In particular RBH will:
- Seek to meet the needs of disabled people
- Develop mechanisms to facilitate consultation with groups
representing disabled people
- Provide resources for adaptations and publicise adaptations to
council properties to reach all those entitled to assistance.
- investigate and take appropriate action on all reported cases
of harassment against disabled people.
- Wherever possible, alter offices to make them more accessible
for disabled people.
- Provide regular training to all relevant staff on disability
issues.
- Communicate with disadvantaged groups through appropriate
means, e.g. translated material, audiotapes, videotapes, braille
and computer disks.
- Set targets for staff recruitment of disabled people and
provide adaptations to the workplace where necessary.
- We will challenge discrimination
- We will improve disabled access to communal areas on our
estates
- We will ensure all residents of sheltered schemes can access
communal areas
- We will make best use our computer systems and share
information with other service providers in order to make our
services more responsive for disabled persons
Equality for disabled people may mean treating them ‘more
favourably’. This underlines the fact that equality of
opportunity cannot be achieved simply by treating disabled and
non-disabled people alike.
View the full Disability
Equality document (1.2mb pdf)