How do standards affect rights and responsibilities under the existing provisions of the DDA?
If a Disability Standard is in force and applies to a particular issue, then, because of DDA sections 32 and 34, the Standard provides the legally applicable rule and the existing provisions do not. For example: • The Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport provide compliance targets 5, 10, 15 and 20 years after the date that the standards enter into force. If a rail operator is meeting the relevant target by making the required proportion of stations accessible, a person who wants to complain that their local station is not accessible will not succeed, even though they might have been able to under the existing provisions. The standards substitute a system wide compliance requirement over time for a potentially more immediate single instance solution.That is an inherent part of the scheme of these Standards. • The public transport standards set particular dimensions for “allocated spaces” for people riding in wheelchairs. A person whose mobility aid does not fit those dim
