Disproportionate burden
Disproportionate burden is a clause within the accessibility regulations that provides some reprieve based on an organisation’s remit, and the size and cost of remediation work. Meeting the clause requires the organisation to carry out a test.
The disproportionate burden clause is appropriate for smaller organisations, like a parish council that are run on a largely voluntary basis.
It’s the prioritisation or lack of designing for accessibility at the start, and throughout, that causes issues or increased expense. DfE has considerable funding, therefore, is not appropriate for us to apply it in DfE.
When you remove the rationale of money and time – the disproportionate burden route only:
- increases governance and internal processes
- opens DfE to scrutiny, as people will ask for and publicise details of the decision and calculation of the request
- slows down wider take up of the regulations
If your service or content is being decommissioned, use accessibility statements to provide timescales.
If you are managing content, prioritise fixing or removing inaccessible information published after September 2018.
Information about this page
- Created
- 18 July 2024
- Last reviewed
- 18 July 2024
- Last updated
- 18 July 2024
- Reason this page exists
- This page exists to help people understand how to manage and prioritise accessibility issues and apply disproportionate burden if appropriate.
- Suggest a change or comment
- Issue 63