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Website accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to the whole https://www.sanctuary.co.uk/ domain and the https://scotland.sanctuary.co.uk/ and https://keyworker.sanctuary.co.uk/ subdomains.

This website is run by Sanctuary. 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 400% without the text spilling off the screen and without content being truncated or overlapping
  • 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)

How accessible is this website?

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, but we know some parts of it are not fully accessible:

Issues affecting screen reader users

  • Some images do not have appropriate alternate text. Some of these images are links, in which case the link destination cannot be determined.
  • Some landmarks have not been identified, so navigation and orientation are not as easy as they could be.
  • Some headings are the wrong level, so the page structure is not conveyed correctly.
  • The expanded / collapsed state of the dropdown menu and accordion sections are not conveyed to screen readers.

Issues affecting people who use keyboard navigation

  • The “skip to content” links at the top of each page do not work.
  • The burger menu does not close automatically when you tab out of it, so it can obscure other content and prevent access to it.
  • Focus is not trapped within popup dialogs, so you may not be able to see where it has gone if you tab out of the popup.
  • The Escape key does not close the modal dialogs, although there is usually another means to do so.

Issues affecting people with visual impairments

  • Most focus indicators, textbox borders and checkbox borders are difficult to see because they have low colour contrast, especially in Firefox and Safari.

Adapting your experience to your needs

We have made the site as usable as we can, but you might have a better experience if you change the settings on your computer to suit your individual needs.

For example you might change the site’s colours, increase the text size, or have the site spoken aloud.

For help customising your experience using accessibility features already on your computer, or by installing extra assistive technologies, try these sites:

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, you can phone 01905 334 596 or email online.marketing@sanctuary.co.uk.

You can also fill in the Website Accessibility Feedback Form.

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Our contact us page details how you can get in touch with us.

Some of our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit, we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We aim to fix the following issues by the end of April 2022:

  • Images not displaying alt attributes (Banner, Footer logos, cards, components, etc).
  • Remove: title attribute from links; redundancy within landmarks; and Tag <br> used for line breaks and use <p> tags.
  • Contact block in footer: phone number used for “href” attribute cannot contain spaces.
  • Pagination elements: add “aria-current” attribute.
  • Identify landmarks (header, footer, main).
  • Links: footer menu links headings should have a parent header (h2) or change them to <h2>; footer end links to be placed in a list; skip to content link not visible when on focus, not pointing to the correct “id” attribute; button links need an accessible “visited” state design; and footer end links should have visual difference than regular text.
  • Review use (misuse) of: <strong> vs <b>; and <header> tags.
  • Home page does not have an <h1> heading.
  • Pagination heading should be <h3> not <h4>; and Housing – Your Home: should have an <h2> heading before the content area.
  • Search button does not flow well on mobile with increased text size and Search modal close button should be a <button> tag.
  • Enable ESC key to close modals, and when modal is open it should retain focus within.
  • Focus order of main logo vs different nav elements.
  • Mobile, when menu is open focus should be contained within.
  • Tag <div> not allowed as child of <span> (several places).
  • Check hidden form labels.
  • Move attribute “aria-expanded” to the <button> element on the main nav.
  • Google Maps pins are buttons that don’t have any text in them and use images that don’t have alt text.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 18 March 2022. It was last reviewed on 18 March 2022.

This website was last tested on 23 February 2022.

Method for selecting the sample of pages to test

  1. The developers provided a comprehensive set of creative designs.
  2. Test Partners analysed the designs and identified a number of common components that are used throughout the website.
  3. They identified all the different content types and page templates.
  4. They were then able to select a subset of pages that contain examples of every component, content type and page template.