Accessibility statement

This website is run by mhs homes group. 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 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 colour contrast of some areas is low
  • Using keyboard navigation is difficult in some areas
  • We have some PDF documents that are not fully accessible to screen reader software

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

We provide a lot of our content digitally and do our best to make it as easy to access as we can. But we do understand that digital content may not always be the easiest way for you to access our information. So, if you need it in another format including:

  • Braille
  • Another language
  • Large print
  • Audio

To request an alternative language or format:

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If something's wrong or needs improving then let us know and we'll see what we can do to put it right. It might be that something's not working for you, there's an improvement you'd like to see or you've found a broken link.

Please email as much information as you can to contactus@mhs.org.uk.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has useful tips on contacting organisations about inaccessible websites.

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/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.

Call us on 01634 565333 or visit us at mhs homes, Broadside, Leviathan Way, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4LL.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

mhs homes group is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Scope

mhs homes group operates a number of websites, subsites, and online services (“Sites”).

This accessibility statement applies to the following Sites:

Non-accessible content

We completed an initial accessibility audit in June 2020. This audit was carried our an in-house accessibility expert.

We used sample pages from our website and customer account.

Site wide issues

Frequently asked questions widget

This widget is not accessible to users of screen readers.

This component was tested in Microsoft Narrator on 27 February 2024.

The question field was not read aloud. Instead of the question content, only the word 'question' was read.

The widget uses a link element for the question. This fails success criterion Understanding Success Criterion 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value (A)

Header navigation cannot be operated using a keyboard

Tabbing to menu items in the global site navigation does not reveal the dropdown submenu (neither does it appear on keyboard return).

Some web users navigate using keyboard or a non-mouse device. These users are unable to access website content through the global navigation.

This fails success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard (Level A).

We're investigating solutions for this.

Focus styles are missing from many elements

We should help users know which element on the page has the keyboard focus. Items in our navigational elements, and some more complex display components do not do this.

This fails success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible (Level AA).

Colour contrast issues

Our brand colours sometimes have too-little contrast when used together and don't conform to minimum contrast guidelines.

Colour contrast below the ratio of 4.5:1 is considered hard to read by people with moderately low vision.

This fails success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA).

Pages Titles in My Account are not unique

In My Account, the page titles (shown visibly in the browser tab) are generic and not unique to the content of the page.

Titles should be descriptive of the content on the page to help users find content and orient themselves within it.

This fails success criterion 2.4.2 Page Titled: Web pages have titles that describe topic or purpose (Level A).

Content specific issues

Poor heading structures

These pages on mhs.org.uk have poor heading structures:

This fails success criterions 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA) and 2.4.10 Section Headings (Level AAA).

My Account dashboard headings are not in order

In My Account, the headings on the dashboard page are out of order.

Although visually coherent, this may present problems for someone navigating the page by headings using assistive software.

This fails success criterion 2.4.10 Section Headings (Level AAA).

Account statements are in PDF format

There is no version of account statements available in a format which can be read by assistive technologies. PDFs can be accessible to assistive screen readers, but these are not.

The content cannot be resized well and does not adapt in the browser to the device size (not responsive), and the content cannot be parsed and read aloud by a screen reader (tested with NVDA) and other assistive technologies

This fails success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A).

We're investigating solutions to this.

Form labels in our payment portal

When entering payment card details in our customer portal, the label of the two year select elements (for start date and expiry date) do not describe the purpose of the field.

This fails success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A).

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We've carried out and published an accessibility audit to catalogue our issues.

We're liaising with software suppliers to arrange fixes to issues we've discovered.

Third party content

Links to other websites

Sometimes we link to other websites that you'll need to use to access our services or that provide useful information, including:

  • Social media platforms
  • News and information sites
  • Official information sources, such as Kent Fire & Rescue Service and Kent Police

We can't guarantee that this content will be accessible. You'll need to get in contact directly with them if you'd like their content in another format.

Using third party content or functionality on our website

We feature third party content or functionality on our website, including:

  • Survey tools to collect feedback from users
  • Insight tools which tell us how people are using the website
  • Applications for creating forms and storing data
  • Our recruitment website

Where we choose to feature third party content or functionality on our website, we endeavour to work with the third party to improve its accessibility.

 

This statement was prepared on 29/06/2020.