Improving access to justice for disabled people means ensuring they can participate in the legal system themselves - and even making sure they are taken seriously when they offend, according to Capability Scotland.

The charity is co-ordinating a partnership of disability organisations and justice bodies to ensure disabled people receive equal treatment and are able to insist on their legal rights. The partnership was launched earlier this week.

The expectation was that the initiative would focus on making sure disabled people could effectively pursue legal claims and make use of laws such as the recent hate crimes legislation. Cases of physical barriers to justice, including out-dated courtrooms which do not allow easy wheelchair access or lack hearing loops, were also highlighted.

However the launch also revealed disquiet about the lack of representation for people with physical or learning disabilities within the legal process, as jurors, judges and lawyers, rather than just as litigants.

One man even complained that - at a demonstration in London - he had been protesting outside Parliament with other campaigners who had all been arrested, but he had not as the police van could not accommodate his wheelchair.

Richard Hamer, Capability Scotland's director of external affairs, said this was not the central focus of the campaign, but added: "We're equally interested in disabled people as offenders being taken seriously." As part of the partnership, Capability Scotland aims to visit prisons in the central belt to gauge the experience of justice for disabled people.

Visibility and engagement with the justice system was another unexpected issue raised at the launch, he added. "Disabled people were saying: We want to be able to get justice ourselves, but we also want to be part of the process. We want to be able to be jurors, judges, policemen'."

The main thrust of the initiative is to bring disabled people and their representatives together with key organisations in the justice sector, including the Scottish Government, Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, the Crown Office and court service, the Law Society of Scotland, the Scottish Legal Aid Board and the Scottish Prison Service.

A survey before the launch showed that 42% of disabled people do not currently feel they have equal access to justice. A quarter were positive about the justice system, but almost as many, 24%, had a negative impression and 44% said they had encountered disabling barriers in trying to access justice.

Over the course of a six-month consultation programme, public bodies, disabled people and disability groups will look at issues including physical access and institutional and attitudinal barriers to equal participation.

Focus groups will give people with a wide range of impairments the chance to examine the barriers they face when accessing the justice system, with the programme culminating in a national conference in Edinburgh on November 16.

Solicitor General Frank Mulholland QC, speaking on behalf of the Crown and Procurator Fiscal Service, said if there were issues which needed to be addressed, the initiative would help to identify them. "We will continue to work hard to increase the confidence of disabled people in the criminal justice system and encourage and facilitate disabled victims of crime to come forward," he said.

Ian Smart, president of the Law Society of Scotland, said: "We recognise that while efforts are made to ensure the system is delivered fairly and in an accessible way, some physical, attitudinal and procedural barriers remain, and that we need to do more to promote equal access and opportunities."

Hamer said the collaborative approach would bring together all those with an interest in ensuring the justice system was open and accessible: "We hope this will be the beginning of a long-standing relationship which will draw on disabled people's skills and experiences to improve the Scottish justice sector for all."

He added that anecdotal evidence at the launch had revealed that for some, simply knowing how to get on the first rung of the justice system was a problem.

"We have very specific legislation targeting people with disabilities - including legally enforceable blue badge parking bays and the hate crimes law. But people felt a bit ignorant about what that actually provides, and didn't know how they could tell if they have actually got a case. That suggests the first step alone is putting people off. We need to look at how people - for instance those with learning disabilities or communication problems - can actually go about finding out this kind of basic information. Putting a lot of complex information on a website isn't acceptable."

A poll about disabled people's experiences of the justice system is being kept open during the partnership.

For more information see www.capability-scotland.org.uk/justice.