Defend your rights if you are disabled

Sir,
I am responding to the letter ‘Disabled access: Cyprus must come into line’ (Sunday Mail, January 30).

I represent Access Two All, an organisation to help individuals find information as to finding equipment to how to deal with disability discrimination matters.

We will also give information to service providers and guidance where to find help on the new regulations and about how to make their services accessible.

The Law when it comes in to force will say: where a physical feature makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled persons to access your goods or services, your organisation is required to make reasonable steps to either remove the feature, or alter it so it no longer has that effect, or provide a reasonable means of avoiding the feature, or provide a reasonable alternative method of making the service available.

This duty applies to all disabled people.

Service providers are required to anticipate the types of problems which could arise so that when a disabled customer requests a service, reasonable steps will already have been taken to ensure that they can be served without unreasonable difficulty.

Disabled individuals will be entitled to financial compensation and other legal remedies where they are affected by a breach of these requirements.

What to do if you are discriminated against: your positive persuasion may convince an organisation or business to make adjustments and alterations. If you get an unsatisfactory response, you may wish to take matters further, you can contact Access Two All – we can give impartial and independent advice.

The Disability Rights Commission have a suggested standard letter which we will be happy to send to you by e-mail. You can fill in with your details and send to the organisation or businesses you feel have discriminated against you.
Once they realise how seriously you take this matter they may be ready to make changes.

Feel free to contact us at [email protected], tel: 00 44 7989753879
We are based in the UK at the moment, but are in the process of moving to Cyprus and have contacts in Cyprus now happy to help.

James Andrews, Access Two All, Bridgwater, Somerset UK

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.