Sign up forms, information guides and fundraising packs: Disproportionate burden assessment

We have carried out a disproportionate burden assessment on sign up forms, information guides and fundraising packs on our website that are PDF documents.

Scope

As of September 2018, accessibility legislation states that public sector websites must publish content in an accessible format. These documents are published on our website as PDFs of varying sizes.

Benefits of creating an accessible version

The benefits of creating an HTML version of these documents would be:

Fully accessible versions for all users to access
Documents that are more easily searchable and indexable

Burden

There are several forms and guides created by the organisation. Many of these forms and documents were designed specifically to be printed by supporters rather than read on screen.
Each document would require several hours of work to be recreated in a fully accessible version (estimated to take between 2 and 40 hours per document, depending on length and complexity, plus any additional sign off).
In some cases, due to the way the form or guide has been created in the template as a print ready document, creating an accessible version could take weeks.
We have looked at costs to outsource the creation of PDF documents into accessible versions and the cost is considered not to be an effective use of charity funds.

Other factors

Also, relevant to the decision are that:

To date we have not been asked for accessible versions of any of these documents.
In the case of sign-up forms, this is an alternate way of registering to donate via standing order, payroll giving, or the charity lottery via printed form. Online alternative sign-ups which are accessible are also available.
In the case of printable information guides and fundraising packs, these documents were originally designed to be printed as a way distribute information and branded materials on paper, not to be read online.

Assessment

Having considered the estimated effort involved in creating HTML versions of all these documents, we have concluded that the work involved would be a poor use of limited staff time. This represents a disproportionate burden on the organisation.