This accessibility statement applies to the website https://www.lewishamhomes.org.uk.
This website is run by Lewisham Homes. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this site. For example, that means you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- zoom in up to 400% without the text overlapping
- navigate most of the website using just a keyboard, including being able to easily bypass repetitive menu links via a skip to content link on all pages
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- Some PDF documents may not be fully accessible to screen reader software. Contact us if you wish to request an alternative version of PDF content.
A full listing of known issues with our web pages that may affect users with disabilities is available below under non-accessible content.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 14 days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact:
Enforcement procedure
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’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
We provide a text relay service for people who are deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Lewisham Homes is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
Compliance status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility
Images and non-text content
Some images in web pages and PDFs lack a descriptive text alternative for assistive technology users. This includes some functional images acting as links on the website. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1)
Some images of text are used which may not magnify well for users with low vision. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.5)
Colour and contrast
Some links are identified using colour alone. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1)
The colour scheme on the website and in some PDFs does not provide sufficient contrast for some text against the background. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3)
Page and content structure
Some text is displayed visually as a heading but is not marked up as such for assistive technology. This occurs in web pages and PDFs. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1)
Some content is marked up as headings which is not acting semantically as a heading on the page. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1)
Some visually displayed lists are not marked up as lists for assistive technology. This occurs in web pages and PDFs. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1)
Page pagination is not appropriately marked up for assistive technology to communicate its semantics and the current page. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1)
Some PDFs are not tagged for accessibility, so the semantics of the content will not be available for assistive technology users. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.2)
Some PDFs do not have a correct reading order identified for screen reader users. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.2)
The page titles for most web pages follow a consistent format of page name followed by the site name. Some pages on the site, however, do not follow this format or have titles that do not match the page name. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2)
Some PDFs do not have a descriptive title. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2)
Keyboard navigation and focus order
The “quick exit” button on the Domestic Abuse page is wrongly positioned in the keyboard focus order. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3)
Some decorative images receive screen reader focus when using swipe navigation on iOS with VoiceOver active. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3)
There is a visually hidden, unlabelled button that receives keyboard focus in some forms. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3)
The keyboard focus indicator is not visible on some components. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7)
Forms and error messaging
Description text for some form fields is placed after the fields, but is not programmatically associated with the field, so may be missed by assistive technology users. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1)
The input purpose is not programmatically defined with the autocomplete attribute for some fields that collect personal information in forms. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.5)
The borders of some input fields have insufficient contrast with the page background. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.11)
The “select files” button in the forms for complaints and for reporting dumped rubbish and large items is inoperable on iOS when the VoiceOver screen reader is active. (As a workaround however, VoiceOver users can swipe to a visually hidden element after the button which can be activated.) (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1)
Some error messages in forms are not communicated to assistive technology users. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.1)
The required nature of some form inputs is not sufficiently identified. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.2)
Some error messages in forms are insufficiently descriptive of the error. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.3)
In the complaints form, a character counter is updated visually for sighted users, but this is not announced for users of assistive technology. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.3)
Interactive components
Submenu items in the mega menu cannot be dismissed without moving the mouse or keyboard focus. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.13)
The button in the cookie banner has an insufficiently descriptive label for assistive technology. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.6)
There are some link labels which are hidden from assistive technology. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.5.3)
Some links on the homepage have an insufficiently descriptive label for assistive technology of just “infobox link”. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2)
Some buttons do not have an accessible label for assistive technology. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2)
The mobile menu button and sub menus in the main mega menu do not communicate their expanded or collapsed state to assistive technology consistently with their visual state. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2)
Coding
There are parsing errors in the markup of pages. These are technical failures for WCAG 2.1 but may not have a direct effect on users. (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1)
Disproportionate burden
Some of the interactive functionality on our website has accessibility issues, which will make them difficult for some people to use. This includes our service forms, repair reporting tool, and interactive maps. The issues are:
Our current vacancy application and repair reporting tool is built and hosted through third party software and skinned to look like our website.
We’ve assessed the feasibility of fixing the issues detailed above and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. This is because, as a third party application, we do not have direct access to the underlying code and cannot make the necessary changes to fix the above issues. We have flagged the issues to the third party provider to expedite a fix.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Pre-recorded video and audio
The accessibility regulations do not require us to add audio description or text transcripts to pre-recorded videos and audio published before 23rd September 2020.
Any new videos or audio added to the site will meet accessibility standards.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
Our accessibility roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 17 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 23 September 2020.
This website was last tested on 11 June 2020. The test was carried out by AbilityNet.
11 pages from https://www.lewishamhomes.org.uk were selected to be audited, representing pages that have high usage and that contain different representative types of component. Pages were tested against WCAG 2.1 A & AA on Windows desktop with Firefox and NVDA screen reader and on mobile using an iPhone with VoiceOver.
Further assistive technology reviews using ZoomText and Dragon were also conducted on the same pages, along with a PDF audit of a sample PDF.
A retest of issues was conducted by AbilityNet on 31/08/2020 – 04/09/2020.
You can read the full accessibility test report.