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About 10 people and I cycle to work and have to swipe a card on a post to get through the gates.

Now, someone in a wheelchair has started working here too, and because the post's position was impossible for her to reach, the landlord has moved the sensor to make it easier for her to swipe her card, which is fixed to the side of her chair. It's now really awkward for us cyclists to reach, because it's down at nearly floor level.

Just to be clear, no one has a problem with this at all, and all us cyclists are happy to oblige. The landlord is also going to install a second sensor high up for us.

I just want to know if hypothetically, if making life easier for a disabled person makes a non-disabled person's life harder, is it legal?

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    For the wheelchair user, it was formally not possible to swipe. For the cyclists it is now difficult, but possible. This is not a question of harder vs. easier but of harder vs. possible.
    – phoog
    Apr 2 at 1:09
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    Your basic premise seems to be wrong, there's no law that says that everyone has to be equal. The law is that we have to accomodate disabled people.
    – Barmar
    Apr 2 at 19:55
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    Generally speaking, it's not illegal to slightly inconvenience people, especially if you do it by rearranging your own property. There's also no law saying that you have to treat disabled people worse than non-disabled people. So what makes you suspect that this even might be illegal?
    – Tanner Swett
    Apr 2 at 20:30
  • Note that the US ADA specifies a range of reach heights. Being too low can be an ADA violation as somebody with a walker or crutches can't bend down. Of course, one could install dual controls.
    – user71659
    Apr 4 at 21:49
  • Some shop replaces 6 steps with a ten meter long ramp for wheelchair users. That inconveniences me. Totally legal.
    – gnasher729
    Apr 5 at 11:27

1 Answer 1

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Yes

Being disabled is a protected class under the Equality Act. being a cyclist isn’t. The landlord has to make reasonable accomodations for her, he doesn’t have to for you.

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    Since the question is tagged with both [united-states] and [england-and-wales], and each jurisdiction has an "Equality Act", could you edit this answer to indicate which one(s) it applies to?
    – ruakh
    Apr 2 at 8:30
  • @ruakh it applies to both
    – Dale M ♦
    Apr 2 at 8:35
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    @DaleM: Tagging the answer is still extremely useful — it lets readers quickly see which jurisdiction(s) the answer applies to.
    – Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine
    Apr 2 at 17:51
  • Well, thanks but is this in law or just ftom your own personal knowledge ?
    – Heddy
    Apr 2 at 18:14
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    It applies similarly to both, although in the US it's called "Americans with Disabilities Act" (aka ADA).
    – Barmar
    Apr 2 at 19:52

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