Accent Housing Accessibility Statement
This statement applies to content published on the www.accentgroup.org domain and subdomains (for example, myaccount.accentgroup.org).
This website is run by Accent Housing Limited. It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. The text should be clear and simple to understand. You should be able to:
- zoom in up to 300% without problems in most browsers
- navigate most of the website using just a touchpad
- navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
- access text to speech with built in access to Browsealoud
- enable high contrast pages and fonts
- use most of the website using a screen reader
However, we are aware that improvements can always be made. If you have any comments and or suggestions about our website, please contact us by emailing customer.services@accentgroup.org.
How accessible this website is
Parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- some pages and document attachments are not clearly written
- some tables do not have row headers
- some pages have poor colour contrast
- some heading elements are not consistent
- some images do not have good alternative text
- some buttons are not correctly identified
- some error messages are not clearly associated with form controls
How to request content in an accessible format
If you need information in a different format contact use by emailing customer.services@accentgroup.org or ringing our Contact Centre on 0345 678 0555 (option 2), alternatively use the Contact Us form and tell us:
- the web address (URL) of the content
- your name and email address
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or you think we are not meeting the accessibility requirements, please using the Contact Us form on the web address below:
www.accentgroup.org/contact-us/
Enforcement procedure
If you contact us with a complaint and you’re not happy with our response contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’).
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Accent Housing Limited is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This website is partially compliant with the the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.
Non-accessible content
We understand the need for keeping our website up to date and validating content against accessibility standards.
PDFs and other documents
Some documents are not accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure.
If you need information in a different format contact use by emailing customer.services@accentgroup.org or ringing our Contact Centre on 0345 678 0555 (option 2), alternatively use the Contact Us form and tell us:
- the web address (URL) of the content
- your name and email address
How we tested this website
This website was originally designed for compliance against WCAG 2.0 and 2.1AA standards and was re-tested by a web design agency in March 2021. The improvements identified are being implemented mid-2021.
Google’s Lighthouse tool was used for the assessment in addition to manual checks.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
In our last update (September 2020) we said we plan to review accessibility with an audit in the first quarter of 2021 and a resolution plan over the months following the audit.
The review was completed and development is in progress to deliver improvements in summer 2021.
The findings of the review have been summarised below in the section 'Accessibility Audit Results'.
Accessibility Audit Results
An audit of the website was performed in March and early April 2021
Most pages were rated at between 80 and 98 out of 100 (higher scores are better) using Google’s Lighthouse accessibility assessment tool. The site overall scored well but there are areas for improvement. Below is a summary of improvements identified:
- Some areas do not sufficient contrast between foreground and background for example banner text, in text links to other sites and pages, some icons (Twitter, YouTube)
- Some navigation elements are not in sequentially descending order
- Not all buttons have accessible names, some form elements do not have associated labels and some images do not have [alt] attributes.
- Manual checks found that not all controls have associated labels, some off screen content is not hidden from onscreen assistive technology.
- Interactive controls like checkboxes and radio buttons are not always keyboard focusable. Focus can sometimes be hidden (so it is not obvious which item is currently selected)
- Improvements suggested to MyAccount include changing Aria identifications (labels) to enable accessible technologies to present forms in an easier to navigate way. Improvements to Tooltips, labels and the tabbing order on forms were also suggested
- The work to fix these issues is underway and will be implemented in summer 2021, after which a further audit will be performed.
This statement was prepared on 14 May 2021.
Last updated: 14th May 2021
