DDA, BS8300, Approved Document M & The Equality Act

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) works to protect people with disabilities – including blind and partially sighted people – from discrimination.

In 2010, the DDA was replaced with the Equality Act in England, Scotland and Wales. Specifically, the DDA now applies in Northern Ireland only.

A common misconception is that Architectural Hardware needs to be designed to be DDA compliant, strictly speaking, elements originally covered by the DDA are now covered in the Equality Act (EA) 2010 which incorporated (and repealed) the DDA.

This means that the Equality Act therefore renders the term ‘DDA compliant’ obsolete.

Operating forces of doors when installed with overhead door closers:

UK Fire resistant doors are required to achieve a minimum closing force of between 18 & 26 Newton Metres (Size 3 in accordance withBS EN1154:1997).

DDA / Equality Act / BS8300 states that the opening force be no more than 30 N from 0°(closed position) to 30° open.