Rugby Football League Equality & Diversity Seminar 9 th February 2012 Joyce Cook – Chair Gary Deards – Vice Chair Mike Rice – Administrator

About Level Playing Field  National Association of Disabled Supporters  Established 1998, registered charity  >60 Disabled Supporters Associations  Represents >30,000 pan-disabled supporters  Campaigns for equal access to sports  Shares information and good practice  Meets regularly with sports, government & EHRC  Advising London 2012

 15% of the population is Deaf or hard or hearing  >2 million partially-sighted/Blind people  < 18% have no sight  >1.5 million learning disabled people  1 in 4 people will experience mental ill-health in their lifetime  1% of the population uses a wheelchair  5%-7% of all disabled people  The requirements of disabled people can be hidden or visible Why be accessible and inclusive?

 Moral case – social inclusion  Legal case – DDA/Equality Act  Business case – new market

Moral case – social inclusion  supporting attending live sporting events is an integral and vital part of our culture and tradition  fans are increasingly diverse/more representative of our wider multicultural society  naturally this includes many more disabled people  50% of disabled people have never participated in leisure or sports activities and 1 in 3 learning disabled people say they have no friends  many rugby clubs provide activities outside of match days and are at the heart of local community life

Legal case – DDA/Equality Act  Equality Act 1 st October 2010  Strengthened previous DDA  Ensure that your club meets its legal requirements  Service providers have a legal duty to think about access and removal of barriers with a safe & inclusive service  Make reasonable adjustments; reduce liability and risk of a compensation payment  Risk damage to club reputation if you do not comply

Legal case – DDA/Equality Act  Disability occurs when a person is excluded from something that other people in society take for granted  It might be the chance to attend an event, access a service or get involved in an activity  I am not disabled, however you might disable me if you fail to remove either physical, sensory, intellectual or attitudinal barriers at your club  The most disabling of these is attitudinal barriers

Good access – it’s good for business  More than 12.4m disabled people in the UK  1 in 4 families has a disabled person  6 in 10 people know a disabled person close to them  Good access assists others, including children, parents and older people  Good access is an important commercial consideration  raise your brand awareness and increase revenue

Good access – it’s good for business  Disabled people have an annual spending power of £91bn  Disabled people can and do influence choice  Be proactive not reactive  Don’t let your club lose potential business - including families & friends of disabled people  ensure your staff and stewards are awareness trained  many low cost solutions Everyone wins when access is better

The Derby County Story Everyone wins when access is better

Tel: Promoting good access for all fan