disability discrimination at college adult education

[tweenyb]

I am disabled from fibromyalgia a part of this condition means i am unable to use stairs. As I am unable to find work from home i thought id enrole in a cake decorating course at the college. i called on several occaisions to ensure that it is disabled friendly my needs would be met.
I bought all the equipment needed as per the acceptance letter.
today i got dropped off at college and was told it was in their other building up 2 flights of stairs. there is no disabled access. I was sent to the admin office who said i could have a refund and it would take about 10 working days. i stated i was angry as this was my step back to work. i was given the tutors number and told to call her as they may possibly move the class location. i called several times and another lady who was upset as she was told her child care would be paid for and it was an error came by and offered to get the tutor to call me. the tutor whos number i was given was not in but i was assured they could not move the class to somewhere on the ground floor or with disabled access. as an alternative they offered me a course that runs over a year that includes baking inc dough work and chocolate work as well as some cake decorating this would cost £540(rather than the £250 ive scraped together plus about £200 in goods for the course). i pointed out that it had taken me ages to arrange the lifts to and from the college i pointed out my condition would not allow me to do the physical work of baking bread and lifting things out of the oven.
i was told that staff would never say that the course was on level access, this made me look a lier, i was told this before i sent off the application form cheque.
I feel humiliated, upset, angry, hurt please can you advise as to any action i can take or whether i can demand that they make certain changes
many thanks

[36TEAK36]

Hi tweenyb,

I am sorry to hear of the difficulties you have had with the college. Obviously someone has made an error and has given you incorrect information, but I do not feel this can be considered discrimination, it is simply a mistake.

Colleges have a finite number a rooms, and have to decide best which rooms will take which course. I do agree that they have not handled things very well, and can understand why you are upset, but deciding it is discrimination is a bit harsh.

I do not believe you have any grounds for making demands that they move your course to the ground floor.

[buildersmate]

A poorly-handled response to what should have been a simple enquiry by you. Then compounded by a buck-passing exercise that resulted in frustration for you when you appealed about the initial poor response.
Porr customer management - yes.
Discrimination - no