Assets of Community Value in Oxford 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 Assets of Community Value officer report documents which are in PDF format:

• Assets of Community Value in Oxford documents
• Assets of Community Value - Nominations not added reports documents

The benefits of creating accessible versions of these PDFs would be:

• fully accessible versions for all users to access
• easily searchable and indexable versions

• The Assets of Community Value Register is kept on our website as a directory, and the most relevant information (site name and address, date added to the register, expiry date etc.) is already in a format that is accessible
• Some of the reports are scanned copies of original documents, or contain scanned signatures of authorised signatories, which are not practical to make more accessible without reproducing the entire document
• The documents are only relevant for a limited period of time and the reports will expire within the next five years at the most

Also relevant to this decision are that: 

• A new report template that seeks to rectify the accessibility issues affecting current reports is being developed and will be used for any new ACV reports going forward
• Interest in the document is low
• Thus far we have not received requests for accessible versions of the documents
• The documents do meet accessibility requirements for a large number of users, although some groups will find it disproportionately difficult
• We have and will always assist with accessible versions on request. 

The most relevant information for sites on the register is listed on a directory format on our webpages, which makes them already largely accessible.

The officer reports contain elements including scanned signatures and site plans, or are scans of printed reports, that may make accessibility difficult.

The reports are valid for the duration of the listing of sites on the register (five years at a time), and will be removed along with the directory entry on expiry.

An updated report template that is more accessible will be used for any new additions to the register.

Suitable versions can be provided on request. 

15 October 2026