Website disproportionate burden assessment
Under The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (“The Regulations”), public sector bodies are required to ensure their websites and mobile applications are accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. This document outlines the assessment conducted by the Southwest Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust to determine whether making all PDF documents accessible would impose a disproportionate burden.
The Regulations
The Regulations require public sector bodies to conform with the latest version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and to publish an accessibility statement. This assessment evaluates the extent to which compliance with these requirements imposes a disproportionate burden on our organisation.
Current Status
The Southwest Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust currently hosts approximately 2200 PDF documents on its website that have been uploaded since September 23 2018. These documents are essential for providing information to the public and supporting our services. Some of these PDFs are intended for print use only by professionals for service users, such as service leaflets and posters.
Financial Constraints
Our annual budget for hosting, support, and development of our website is £5000. Based on our estimates, converting all 2200 PDF documents to accessible formats would require approximately 2200 hours of work, at a cost of £25,000. This cost significantly exceeds our current budget and available resources.
Assessment of Disproportionate Burden
- Cost Analysis: The estimated cost of £25,000 to convert all PDF documents is five times our annual budget for hosting, support, and development. This represents a significant financial burden that our organisation cannot sustain without compromising other critical services.
- Resource Allocation: Allocating the necessary resources to convert all PDF documents would divert funds and manpower from essential services, negatively impacting our ability to serve our community.
- Impact on Users: While we acknowledge the importance of accessibility, the majority of our PDF documents are supplementary and not critical for accessing our primary services. Additionally, some PDFs are intended for print use only by professionals for service users, such as service leaflets and posters.
- Complexity of Information: Many of our reports contain tables and diagrams that cannot be made accessible without either removing them altogether or changing the format. This would alter the information in a way that is no longer impactful or viable.
- Future Uploads: All new PDFs will be assessed or converted to an accessible format before being uploaded.
- Assessment Findings: In December 2024, we assessed the number of PDFs on our site. We estimated that converting each PDF would take approximately one hour from a sample. However, we anticipate that the actual cost and time required may be significantly higher.
- Existing Alternatives: For many of the PDFs, the key information is already available in HTML format or other accessible formats.
Conclusion
Based on the above assessment, the Southwest Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust concludes that making all PDF documents accessible would impose a disproportionate burden on our organisation. We are committed to improving accessibility and will continue to explore cost-effective solutions and prioritise key documents for conversion.
Remediation Plan
- Prioritisation: Identify and prioritise key documents for accessibility conversion.
- Alternative Formats: Provide alternative formats upon request to ensure accessibility for all users.
- Ongoing Review: Regularly review and update our accessibility strategy to align with available resources and technological advancements.
- Removal of Old PDFs: Identify and remove outdated or unnecessary PDFs from our website to reduce the overall burden of conversion.
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