DDA & Teaching Disability Access and Accessibility

Page Updated on March 17, 2023

In addition to training programs such as training how to be an accessibility auditor and getting or giving DDA access training, it is worth giving consideration to the need also to develop the human-assisted elements of the process (human factors).

Why DDA Training Is Needed

By this, I mean that, whilst signage is very important for guiding and aiding disabled and ambulant people in their wayfinding, human help is still often needed.

One such example is in stadiums whereby a wayfinding system needs to be designed to cater for a large number of users using the location, in a short amount of time on match or events days.

Teaching DDA as a Classroom Trainer

–> You can purchase the Training Materials for teaching DDA here <–

Why Do People Need to Be Trained in DDA?

Most locations benefit from having people available to aid disabled and ambulant users (those with mobility issues such as because of ill health or age).

In fact, it is expected by law in line with the Equality Act 2010 that reasonable attempts are made to provide all users with access and sometimes this does require human help or human guidance.

Some old buildings do not have a route that can be used both by able-bodied and disabled visitors, such as a very old church, for example.

In such a scenario an alternative route such as through the back of the building, which can be adapted to include a removable ramp, might suffice and the user might need to be personally shown and aided.

So What Is the Problem with Disability Access? Why Do People Need Training Here?

A particularly good example is in a football stadium on a Saturday afternoon. As a match-day steward, you see what appears to be a drunk person moving awkwardly as they come into the stadium.

What do you do? Take a minute to consider your actions and answer honestly!

Well, did you consider that the person might, in fact, have learning disabilities, and to approach this user as though they are drunk and to threaten to remove them from the stadium is highly problematic in respect of dealing correctly with those most in need?

Training staff to correctly approach people and to understand the needs and ways to deal with people with a range of disabilities can be tackled through Disability Etiquette and Access Awareness training.

If you are interested in this training as a trainer, we do sell this as an off-the-shelf training materials package.

Further Resources

You might also find this post useful:

Why you might like the DDA and Access Audit Training
You can purchase the Training Materials for teaching DDA here.
You can also purchase a one-to-one e-Learning course on DDA.

Training offered in Disability Etiquette for mobility and wayfinding – click banner to learn more

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Dr Valeria (Lo Iacono) Symonds

Valeria has been involved with education for over 16 years. She has taught in the UK at the University of Bath and Cardiff Metropolitan University (where she got her PhD), in addition to working as a researcher at Exeter University. Valeria additionally has several years of experience of also working with Ofsted and Cardiff University in management roles & is she is the founder of Symonds Training.