Access to Premises Standards

1 What is the draft Access to Premises Standard?
2 Why is the Standard important?
3 What does AFDO think about the draft Standard?

1 What is the draft Access to Premises Standard?

The draft Access to Premises Standard aims to make buildings more accessible for people with disabilities. At present, it is a draft Bill which the Australian government wants to make the law. Once it becomes law the Standard will give everyone a clear idea of exactly what has to be done to make buildings more accessible, such as when a lift has to be installed and how to make public address systems accessible for people who are hearing impaired.

Many new buildings and some renovations will have to meet the Standard. The draft Standard will work to make buildings more accessible for people who:

• Use a wheelchair or have a mobility related disability;
• Are blind or vision impaired; or
• Are Deaf or hearing impaired.

The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) believes that every person should have access to every building, no matter what their disability. However, we recognise that this will take time and effort. Like many disability organisations across the country we are working with the government to debate how much can be put into the Standard before it becomes law and what should happen later on.

Why is the Standard important?

Above all else, the Standard is important because it will make life better for people with disabilities.

Many of the things which will be covered by the Standard at this stage are already covered by the Building Code of Australia. People with disabilities often find it hard to access the Building Code because it is expensive to buy and complicated to understand. Then it can be difficult to complain about problems. When the Standard is introduced, the information will be freely available and people with disabilities will be able to complain to the Australian Human Rights Commission if the Standard is not met.

The draft Standard is especially important because the Australian government has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), which is an international law that says that people with disabilities should have the right to access all parts of society. Access to buildings is necessary for people with disabilities to have other human rights, including the rights to live, learn, work, play and be healthy.

The Standard is also important because Australia’s population is getting older, and that means there will be more people becoming disabled in the future.

What does AFDO think about the draft Standard?

The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) is pleased that the Australian government is working actively towards the Access to Premises Standard, a project which had been on hold for several years. However, AFDO does have some concerns about the detail of the current draft. These concerns are:

Some targets are too low.

The draft Standard sets out the number of things like parking spaces or bedrooms in a building which have to be accessible. Many of these targets are set at 10% of all facilities or lower. At present, 20% of Australians have a disability. Most (84%) of those have a physical disability. As our population gets older there will be more people with disabilities so the need for access to buildings will only grow.

In other cases, it is difficult to see how setting a target will work. For example, saying that one communal area on every floor of a building should be accessible means that a person with a disability might be able to access the gym but not the meals area. In another example, people who are hearing impaired will only be able to access meeting rooms with audio loops if they are over a certain size.

People with disabilities can only get into some buildings or parts of a building.

This means no access to:

• Existing buildings which are not already accessible, and which do not undergo extensive renovations in future
• Private homes
• Blocks of flats
• Communal toilet and shower areas in caravan parks and camping grounds

Access is all-or-nothing.

When a floor above ground level is not accessible by lifts for wheelchair users, the draft Standard says it does not need to be accessible at all. This denies access to people with different disabilities, such as those with mobility disabilities who do not use wheelchairs, people who are vision impaired or blind, and people who are hearing impaired or Deaf.

Some things have been exempted from the Standard.

When something is exempted from the Standard it means that it never needs to be made accessible unless the law is changed later, which will be difficult to do. As a result, people with disabilities will not be able to complain to the Australian Human Rights Commission about lack of access to some things, including:

• The first three floors above ground level of a new building which has a floor surface area of 200 metres squared or less;
• Holiday and accommodation units with less than three bedrooms;
• Fire isolated areas like fire stairs

Some things have been left out of the Standard altogether.

There are some things which have been left out of the draft Standard altogether. They may be included later on if the Standard goes through a significant review. However, it may be difficult to get these things put into the Standard at a later date, and they are immediately necessary. These include:

• Fit out of buildings, including things like lighting levels, door designs and electrical switches;
• Wayfinding standards, which would allow people who are blind or vision impaired to navigate their way around a building independently.
• The inclusion of universal signage for people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds

There is no consideration for how the Standard will be used and reviewed.

The draft Standard will be reviewed once every five years if it goes ahead unchanged. Because this is a new law and because the government has just signed the UN CRPD it is concerning that there will not be ongoing monitoring. This would allow everyone to make sure that problems are spotted quickly so that solutions can be found early on.

In addition, the draft Standard refers to a number of Australian Standards which are made and reviewed by committees. At the moment people with disabilities may not have strong representation on those committees, and it is important that our voice is heard clearly and consistently in future.

There is nothing within the draft Standard which talks about making sure people with disabilities can understand and use the Standard. For some people with disabilities, especially those from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds or those who need things in plain English, this means the Standard may be out of their reach.