A recent update to The Disability (Access to Premises – Buildings) Standards 2010 (DAPS) came into effect on November 23, 2024. Among the changes was the inclusion of a reference to the 2021 edition of ‘AS 1428.1 Design for Access and Mobility, Part 1: General Requirements for People with Disabilities‘ replacing the 2009 edition. What do these changes mean for practitioners, and how do they interact with the National Construction Code?

Our position is that practitioners typically work towards building approval, which relies on compliance with the relevant parts of the National Construction Code (NCC) and Building Code of Australia (BCA). Therefore, unless a performance solution is used to demonstrate compliance, the deemed-to-satisfy provisions of the relevant BCA volume should be employed.