Disproportionate burden assessment

Context

The National Army Museum is initiating a complete overhaul of its online collection service, available through the subdomain collection.nam.ac.uk. The current solution is no longer deemed fit for purpose and there are plans for it to be phased out. This disproportionate burden assessment relates to the Museum's website accessibility statement.

Accessibility issues identified

1.1.1 Non-text Content

• Issue: Missing form label on production date (to)
• Where: Online Collection advanced search form
• Solution: Add label for production date (to)

1.1.1 Non-text Content

• Issue: Multiple form labels on object type
• Where: Online Collection advanced search form
• Solution: Remove one of the duplicate labels for object type/archives

1.1.1 Non-text Content

• Issue: Missing fieldset for checkboxes (archives)
• Where: Online Collection and Inventory search forms
• Solution: Add fieldset element - more description can be correctly added here rather than duplication of label on "object type"

1.1.1 Non-text Content

• Issue: Missing form label for form inputs
• Where: Reading room booking system - registration/login/password reminder forms 
• Solution: Provide labels for form input fields

1.3.1 Info and Relationships

• Issue: Results are presented in a table but this is not tabular information
• Where: Online Collection and Inventory search results pages
• Solution: Do not use table element for layout purposes

2.1.1 Keyboard

• Issue: Skip to main content link is broken
• Where: All pages
• Solution: Provide main-content id or remove link if redundant

2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)

• Issue: Lightbox doesn't provide text within navigation links
• Where: Online Collection detail page
• Solution: Use a more accessible lightbox / gallery component or add text to the overlay

2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)

• Issue: Archive viewer doesn't provide text within navigation links
• Where: Online Collection detail page
• Solution: Use more accessible archive viewer software or update statement to declare that the current third-party solution is not accessible in this way

Estimated benefit to end user

• Adding correct labels/fieldsets to forms – Medium
• Fixing skip to main content link – Low
• Adding text to lightbox navigation links – Low
• Addressing issue with Archive Viewer – Low
• Updating all results layouts so they don’t present the information in tables – Low

Estimated cost/effort

• Adding correct labels/fieldsets to forms – Low
• Fixing skip to main content link – Low
• Adding text to lightbox navigation links – Medium
• Addressing issue with Archive Viewer – High (third-party software)
• Updating all results layouts so they don’t present the information in tables – High

Verdict

At this time, it is more beneficial to the Museum and its users to allocate resource to the planning and development of the new online collection service, with accessibility built in from the start, than to patch the accessibility issues identified in a solution that is soon to be obsolete.

However, we will look to address those issues with an estimated cost/effort of ‘Low’ and update our accessibility statement accordingly.