In January 2005, Disability Hackney was commissioned by London Borough of Hackney (LBH) to carry out market research and consultation with disabled people. This is because as require by the Public Sector Duties recommendation of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005, the Council wanted to develop a Disability Equality Scheme (DES) as strategy on how to promote the interest of disabled people in the wider community. The strategy paper should also spells out a plan to tackle discrimination and prejudice against disabled people.
The objectives of the market research were twofold:
Firstly, to examine the accessibility of information about local services and facilities provided by the council for people with disabilities.
Secondly, to examine the attitudes of the council’s employees towards disabled people, the study assessed the council’s employees’ knowledge and understanding of the needs and aspirations of disabled people. This was because attitude is regarded as predisposition of people’s behaviour.
The methods used to conduct the market research were threefold:
Firstly, Disability Access Auditing were conducted by interviewing staff to assess their understanding of the needs of disabled people and their knowledge about how to operate newly installed auxiliary aids (equipment used to enhance written and verbal communication with disabled people).
Secondly, 12 disabled residents of Hackney with various forms of impairments ranging from physical to sensory and learning disabilities were hired as mystery shoppers. This was done to explore disabled service users experiences and views about access to local services and facilities provided by the Council.
Thirdly, three focus groups interviews were conducted to further explore disabled people’s experiences and views about access to local authority’s services and facilities.
The samples of services assessed in the study were chosen from the Local Authority’s Directorates for Corporate Services, Community Services, Neighbourhood & Regeneration and Learning Trust.
The findings of this market research were used to develop the Local Authority’s DES. Due to this study, before the Disability Rights Commission was dissolved in 2005, they recommended the method used to develop Hackney Council’s DES as a model of good practice for other public authorities in the UK. This acknowledgement was reported in the Guardian Newspaper edition published on Wednesday, 4th April 2007.
The full report of the market research, including the finding is available in the publication section of this website.
|