Disproportionate burden statement

Disproportionate burden statement

Our reasons for why some accessibility issues have not been fixed.

Newcastle City Council is committed to meeting the requirement to make websites accessible, set out in The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 ("the accessibility regulations").

However, our work covers more than 800 services, with a vast, complex collection of websites, and have limited resources to check them all for accessibility issues.

 

Our approach to carrying out accessibility checks

We've decided to use a combination of methods, as set out in the GOV.UK guidance on deciding how to check your websites and in compliance with the accessibility regulations.

Our accessibility statement for Newcastle City Learning covers problems we found for this website, our plans to fix them and any issues it would be a disproportionate burden to fix at this time.

 

Disproportionate burden assessment

We believe that our approach to carrying out accessibility checks is reasonable. However, that might mean accessibility issues on some of websites are not fixed.

However, the accessibility regulations say that we do not need to make a website accessible if doing so would impose a disproportionate burden on us.

 

Documents

We've assessed that it would be a disproportionate burden to fix all documents published on these websites since 23 September 2018.

The majority of these documents are rarely viewed, therefore they are unlikely to be negatively impacting users with disabilities or impairments. For this reason, we don't believe the cost of time, effort and resource to fix all the documents is justified.

We will focus on ensuring that new documents are accessible where they are produced.

As of 22 February 2024, there were 9 documents on Newcastle City Learning within scope of the accessibility regulations, however if you consider Newcastle City Council’s entire web estate there would be many thousands of historic documents created by the organisation.

It's difficult to know how long it would take to make every document accessible without first reviewing each one. 

Potentially each document would require several hours of work to be recreated in a fully accessible version.

 

Assessment of costs and benefits

We believe that:

  • The size, resources and nature of our organisation mean that there are limited public resources available which must be managed appropriately and in the public interest to prioritise the delivery of essential services to the public
  • The costs of fixing all of the documents on our websites would be a substantial burden on us and the public resources we manage
  • The benefit to users would be limited and their needs can be met in other ways
  • Therefore, fixing all documents on this website would impose a disproportionate burden on us.

In reaching this decision, we have considered the following:

Our organisation’s size, resources, and nature

Newcastle City Council has just one dedicated role for content management across its web estate. As a service Newcastle City Learning has no dedicated role for this purpose.

We have a long-term project designed to specifically address the rationalisation and reduction of our existing legacy web estate and make all of our websites accessible.

This project, using the LocalGov Drupal system, will create a digital service that aims to replace the multiple website management systems with a single platform for all of our websites.

Central to this service will be ensuring accessibility and a fully inclusive user experience.

Redirecting resources away from this project, to complete detailed accessibility checks and fix documents on all legacy websites (which will eventually be replaced through this project), will delay the delivery of this more user-centric service.

 

How to request content in an accessible format If you need information in a different format contact us and tell us:

  • the web address (URL) of the content
  • your name and email address
  • the format you need, for example, audio CD, braille, BSL or large print, accessible PDF

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible. 

 

Last updated

This assessment was last updated on 22 February 2024.