Disproportionate Burden Assessments

sharepoint functions

Scope

There are certain issues with microsoft sharepoint which is the software used to build and manage the website:

• It doesn't provide a correct aria label #ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_ctl01__ControlWrapper_RichHtmlField

• It doesn't provide unique titles when inserting iframes/embedding code

This causes errors in some accessibility checkers.

Benefits

Fixing the sharepoint error would:

• Mean that the site would be more accessible and pass all checkers

Burden

Our assessment of the burden is that:

• This is a default behaviour from microsoft sharepoint and cannot be changed
• To change it the Council would have to purchase a completely new content management system
• This would result in a significant cost, tens of thousands to possibly hundreds of thousands, take up staff resource in procuring, implementing the new content management system would take years.  This resource in staffing and finance is not available to the authority (The current web team budget is £5,000).

Other factors

Also relevant to this decision are that:

• There has been no negative feedback from users
• Some accessibility checkers do not pick this up as an error

Assessment

Given that this errors refer to default behaviour from microsoft sharepoint that cannot be changed, the only solution would be for the organisation to purchase a new content management system which would represent a disproportionate burden on the organisation in terms of cost.  This decision will be reviewed when the time comes to upgrade the current content management system and when accessibility checks are carried out by the web team.