What is DTACS?
DTACS is The Travel Access Complaints Service for Disabled People
We know that making a complaint is difficult. We know that many disabled people have given up on making complaints because they feel nothing is done. We also know how hard it can be to prove your case.
DTACS can help you with these problems.
If you or anyone you know who is disabled has had a problem accessing or travelling on a bus, in a taxi or a minicab anywhere in England and Wales, we can help.
DTACS works in three important ways.
1. We gather evidence to show how complaint systems can be improved. We want to make it easier for people to make complaints and to access justice when they are victims of discrimination when using transport services.
2. We offer training for people who want to become investigators so that they can help others in the area they live.
3. We offer professional investigation services to people who have faced transport access issues. By supporting you in investigating and gathering evidence we can help you make sure your complaint is:
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- Reported to the correct organisation
- Investigated thoroughly
- Answered by those responsible for making improvements
We know that many people don’t want to have to go to court to fight access issues. We know from experience how difficult and stressful that can be. By presenting your evidence to the authorities in the right way you can give your case the best chance of being properly investigated.
Our Services
There are two different stages to our services.
Stage 1
We can help by:
– Listening to you when you tell us what happened
– Giving you clear information about the choices you have to try to solve the problem
– If you agree, we will use the information you provide to build a picture of which services are failing disabled travellers and what changes need to be made to make things better.
Stage 2
Even if you use our free stage 1 service you do not have to use our stage 2 service.
If you do want to use our stage 2 service we will always discuss the price first and we will never charge you any money without agreeing a contract with you.
If you decide you would like our help in investigating the complaint, we can:
– Help you to report the problem to the police, the council or the company responsible.
– Help you to put together the information needed to support your claim, for example, by helping you to collect evidence and write a witness statement. (Contact us to find out more about our free online course ‘Introduction to Gathering and Presenting Evidence’ to learn how to do this yourself)
– Support you throughout the investigation .
– Provide details of trusted law firms who can take your case further if you want to do this.
