Many fitness professionals run there own businesses regardless if your a personal trainer or teach fitness classes.

So when you say class fully inclusive or fully accessible, do you know what that means legally? Is your business legally accessible?

What do I mean by this?

We qualify to teach classes by taking a level 2 qualification of some sort, or some take a 1 day licence programme course, set up classes and do not realise how much you may have to think about to make those classes fully compliant.

Well every business has a legal right under the equality act to make reasonable adjustments to their business so everyone can access them. I will be coming across from a disability angle within this blog..

As a fitness professional we all know that we cannot work with a specific population unless we have the right qualifications. Eg if you want parents & kids in the same class, not only do you need a level 2 qualification, you also need to have the Level 2 kids fitness qualification. Same with older adults, disabled people and pre/post natal. If we don’t have these then our insurance will 99.999% of the time not cover us if you make a claim. (They quite happily take your money every month, telling you of course your covered then make a claim & they won’t help / pay out!)

Recently I’ve been asked quite a few questions about carers in class & if they are entitled to a free space. Well the legal stance is this:

Under the equalities act 2010, every business has a legal obligation to provide reasonable adjustments on there services to disabled clients. The reasonable adjustments will depend on the individual disability as no disability is the same! This is where, as fitness professionals we have to offer these adjustments be it a free carer place in a class. But they have to show they are there fully assisting their client. Eg a person with complex physical disabilities in a wheelchair will need a carer to get them there & to stimulate them during the class.

A visually impaired client may need someone with them in visible clothing for them to follow – and with this they need to be pretty close to the carer for this to be valid as otherwise the instructor could wear the visuable clothing & the person placed in front of them.

If a carer is coming in & getting a full on workout themselves & not supporting their client, then you can charge them a place in that class. But make sure they are paying for it and not the disabled person.

I had a support worker come to class and did just this….. once I asked for payment as she didn’t watch her client once during class, she stopped taking part!

Unfortunately a few support workers (carers) will take the mick and take what they can get. But the majority are really nice & honest. Also as a disabled person myself, we know our rights, what we are entitled to and will try & get what we can that legally we are able to get!