Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to the www.northstowe.com website.

This website is run by Homes England. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

●      change colours, contrast levels and fonts

●      zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen

●      navigate most of the website using just a keyboard

●      navigate most of the website using speech recognition software

●      listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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:

●      the form in the Travel section cannot be used with solely keyboard input, and is not fully compatible with screen readers

●      some text on images has insufficient colour contrast

●      none of the site’s PDF documents are fully accessible to screen reader software

●      text on images doesn’t consistently reflow in all browsers at different magnification levels

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:

●      email webaccessibility@homesengland.gov.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7 days.

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, email us for directions.

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 webaccessibility@homesengland.gov.uk

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Homes England is committed to making its websites 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.

None of the 12 PDFs published to the site since 23 September 2018 have been made fully accessible, and fail multiple WCAG 2.1 criteria. We are planning to remove these files or replace them with accessible versions.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

The form in the Travel section of the site has not been built to work with screen readers, and does not work well using keyboard-only input.

This fails on WCAG 2.1 criterion 2.1, ‘Keyboard accessible’, and criterion 2.4 ‘Navigable’.

We are seeking an alternative form plugin for this page, and failing that will provide an alternative, accessible way for users to submit information.

Disproportionate burden

Text that appears on images doesn’t always have sufficient colour contrast. It also doesn’t consistently reflow correctly at different magnification levels.

This functionality is inherent to the site’s CMS, and cannot be fixed without migrating the site to a new platform. We have assessed this as a disproportionate burden when balancing the cost of such a project against the size of the site’s audience.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Of the 25 PDFs published on the site, 13 were published before 23 September 2018 and so are exempt from the regulations.

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 we publish will meet accessibility standards.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

This website is reviewed on an annual basis to ensure new accessibility problems are not introduced.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30 January 2021. It was last reviewed on 5 February 2021.

This website was last tested on 30 December 2021. The test was carried out by Scroll.

We tested 8 different page templates with Wave, Axe and VoiceOver, and viewed the site both in Chrome and Safari browsers. The tests were conducted by someone with no physical or mental impairments

You can request the full accessibility test report from webaccessibility@homesengland.gov.uk