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Findings from a study exploring how organisations are responding to the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 and 2005 are published today by the Department for Work and Pensions.  »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp research builds on similar studies carried out in 2003 and 2006 and looks more fully at the changes introduced by the 2005 Act.

»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp key findings from the study show that:

• Awareness of the provisions in Part 2 of the DDA that protect against discrimination in employment and recruitment has fallen slightly, but statistically significantly, to 76 per cent of employers from 80 per cent in 2006.
• Thirty per cent of surveyed employers were currently employing a disabled person, and 42 per cent had employed a disabled person in the last ten years.
• Sixty-one per cent of employers had made an employment-related adjustment for an employee in the past or planned to do so, a statistically significant fall since the last survey. Flexible working time or working arrangements were the most commonly reported employment-related adjustments.
• Forty-three per cent of employers cited the existence of the DDA as a driver for making employment-related adjustments. This was rarely the only reason given.
• »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýappre has been no change in overall awareness of the provisions in Part 3 of the DDA that protect against discrimination in access to goods, facilities and services for members of the public among goods and services providers.
• »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýappre has been a statistically significant fall in the percentage of goods and service providers reporting making service-related adjustments (from 87 per cent to 80 per cent) since the last survey.
• Sixty-six per cent of service providers said that they would have made all the service-related adjustments without the legislation, and a further 17 per cent would have made some, so the legislation was rarely the only reason for making adjustments.
• Eighty-one per cent of employers reported that the recession had not affected their ability to employ disabled people. To date the recession has not impacted on employersâ€� ability to make adjustments, but some thought that it might do so in the future.

Notes to Editors:

• »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp research was carried out by »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp Institute for Employment Studies in partnership with Ipsos Mori.
• »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp research consisted of 2,000 telephone interviews with organisations with at least three employees and 97 in-depth interviews.
• Full details of the research can be found at :