Pleased to lay down this Early Day Motion, noting the 25 years of the Disability Doscrimination Act, which was a landmark piece of legislation resulting from a hard-fought campaign by disabled people, campaigning for equal rights and an end to the kind of societal discrimination that saw wheelchair users regularly banned from bars, cinemas and theatres under the guise of health and safety.
The DDA meant that for the first time, it became unlawful to discriminate against disabled people, as employees, customers and citizens using public transport or getting an education.
Despite it now being against the law, disabled people are still discriminated against, in work, in public places, for example by assistance dog owners being refused access to restaurants and taxis, and with huge swathes of public transport still inaccessible, and I fully support disability campaign groups in calling for a fresh look at what needs to change in all aspects of society, including what steps are needed to ensure that anti-discrimination laws are backed up by meaningful enforcement.
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