Accessibility statement

Accessibility Statement

We recognise the importance of providing a website that caters to all our customers needs to ensure a positive and inclusive online experience. 

It’s important you’re able to find what your looking for on our website, we prioritise making our content clear and understandable for everyone by using plain language and a clear structure to our online tools. 

We’ve outlined the main elements of our approach to create an accessible digital environment.

  • We adhere to the W3C standards for HTML and CSS
  • We are working towards A level of the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1
  • Where documents are in PDF format we aim to build out HTML versions to support the use of website tools such browser tools and Recite Me
  • We aim to use strong colour contrasts throughout our website to make sure all designed content is visible
  • We use plain English which is easy to understand. If some information is referring to dated language, we will aim to explain its meaning
  • We provide an opportunity to provide feedback on our accessibility website pages for any recommendations or support you may need with our website

We write in plain English

Writing in plain english is fundamental to making sure our communications are easy to understand and can be translated into other languages easily. 

With Manchester being home to to over 200 languages, being able to translate our communications into your native tongue is fundamental to us being able to talk to each other.

Recite Me

Recite Me is an accessibility assistive toolbar that can be used to help people customise our website to their our personal needs. Featuring a range of tools including screen reading functionality, customisable styling options, a translation feature with over 100 languages and more. 

Simply click on the universal accessibility icon at the top right-hand side of the webpage to activate the Recite Me toolbar.

Colour

All the content on our website is designed with a focus on making information visible and accessible. We use contrasting colours throughout our website to make sure text is easy to read. For those who still struggle to see our content the Recite Me toolbar will allow users to alter the colour of the content to suit the readers eye.

Clear navigation

We build our website with a clear architecture to allow you to navigate through our pages in either direction from the homepage. Our toolbar at the top of the page provide links to to all the essential information you wil require to manage your tenancy.

Links

We maintain a consistent footer across the website to allow for the a quick point of reference to get you to where you need to be.

Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Website Content Accessibility Guidelines are the initiative to provide a framework for organisations to create accessible digital services for customers and ensure they are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. 

We build our website to achieve level A website content accessibility guidelines (WCAG). To achieve this we aim to build our site with key principles and rules that allow to achieve this level A. These rules are but are not limited to to following: 

Providing alt-text descriptions on all images to ensure (WCAG 1.1) 

  • Providing alt-text descriptions on all images to ensure (WCAG 1.1)
  • Provide captions for video content and audio descriptions (WCAG 1.2) 
  • Information without colour is also available in other colour formats using the ReciteMe toolbar
  • The ReciteMe toolbar provides translation services where the user does not have native browser tools to adjust any text (WCAG 1.3)

Browsers

We’re always improving our website and adding new features to improve the service we can provide to you. Sometimes this can lead to the website not working as expected which happens when your browser is out of date. It’s essential you keep your browser up to date to ensure it’s working as expected and to protect yourself from potential cyber security threats.

Ability Net

If you’re not aware of how to use your device to get the most out of your digital services, we recommend visiting AbilityNet. Their My Computer My Way service provides lots of valuable information on how to make your phone, laptop or tablet suit your needs enabling you to adapt the device to a bespoke set-up. 

Ability Net also offer free help on how to use your device if you have a disability. Call them for free on 0300 180 0028. 

Support and feedback

If you need some additional support or would like to provide feedback to us on how we can improve our services. Please contact us using our contact us form and someone will be in touch with you within 5 working days.