Cowley Branch Line Densification Study Stage 2 documents - Disproportionate burden assessments for digital accessibility

Accessibility legislation (on legislation.gov.uk website) states that public sector websites must publish content in an accessible format, unless doing so would impose a disproportionate burden on the organisation. If that is the case, an assessment of the extent to which compliance with the accessibility requirement imposes a disproportionate burden must be carried out.

This is a Disproportionate Burden Assessment for the Cowley Branch Line Densification Study Stage 2 documents.

The benefits of creating an accessible version of these PDFs would be: 

• a fully accessible version for all users to access 
• an easily searchable and indexable version 

Due to the complexity of the maps and diagrams in these documents, we have estimated that it would take 10 and a half days of a content designer’s time to create an accessible version of these PDFs. 

Other factors also relevant to this decision are that: 

• The documents are highly technical and we expect interest in the documents to be low
• The documents do meet accessibility requirements for the majority of users, although some groups will find it disproportionately difficult 
• We will always assist with accessible versions on request

Having considered the estimated effort involved in making the maps and diagrams fully accessible, along with the low estimated demand, we have concluded that the work involved would not be a good use of staff time. However, we will assist with accessible versions if requested. 

3 March 2026