Accessibility

Accessibility Statement for Leeds Homes website

This accessibility statement applies to the Leeds Homes website. 

This website is run by Leeds City Council. 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 using browser or device settings 

  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen 

  • navigate most of the website using a keyboard or 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: 

Bidding process 

  • Users are not alerted to fresh content appearing 

  • Alternative text descriptions are not helpful 

  • Users have to read through all the content before finding help text or error messages 

  • Users have to navigate through all the left-hand columns before they can filter any search results from the right-hand column 

  • The property advert icons need a link to an explanation of what they mean 

Property details page 

  • Screen reader users have to navigate all the way back up the screen to switch between the four options of “Overview”, “Images”, “Local area” and “Map”. 

  • Formatting of the property addresses doesn’t include commas between street address, village, town and postcode meaning it is read out very fast with no pauses between those elements. 

  • The address appear in capitals which some users find hard to read. 

  • Screen reader users have to navigate through all the content then go back to the top to bid for the property. 

Registration page – Primary applicants details 

  • When landing on the Primary applicants details page the user is automatically scrolled half way down the page resulting in unexpected behaviour (this occurs when the page is refreshed). 

  • There is no alert to any errors if a screen reader user enters a postcode incorrectly. 

My Account 

  • Some of the information available for sighted users under the Social Housing application title is not available for screen reader users, meaning they are unable to access the same content. 

My bids - My account 

  • Screen reader users are not alerted of new content appearing when the “how to withdraw a bid” link is clicked. 

  • When withdrawing a bid it is not possible to close the popup using a screen reader or the keyboard on its own. 

Miscellaneous issues 

  • On some pages a screen reader user is autofocused on the first form element on the page, forcing the user to interact with the form without any context, for example, on the registration and login pages. 

  • On some pages a user is autofocused on specific elements as they land on the page, for example, on the my account’ dashboard and my bids page. 

  • Not all elements on the website that can receive focus have visible focus styling. 

  • Where we ask for dates such as date of birth a user is auto focused into the next input field when they have entered enough digits. This stops a screen reader user from reviewing what content they have entered. 

  • Some forms have hints to help the user fill out the form however these are placed after the input field. Screen reader users have to navigate to the input field, view the next bit of text then navigate back to the input field to fill the field. 

  • The text doesn’t reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window 

  • Some parts of the website don’t have the correct minimum contrast of 4.5 

  • The PDFs need to be checked for accessibility with screen reader software 

Feedback and contact information 

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, or if you need information on this website in a different format like large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, contact us by phone on 0113 222 4413, or visit your Local Community Hubs or One Stop Centre

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 

Leeds City Council 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. 

Non-accessible content 

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons. 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations 

1.1.1 Non-text Content Some Text alternatives need changing as they convey the same meaning as the image, for example, ‘front view’ instead of ‘a 2 bed semi-detached property. 

1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded) There is no audio guide to explain the help videos 

1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) There are no captions available on the help videos. The videos are media alternatives for text but are not clearly labelled as such. 

1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) There is no audio available on the help videos. The videos are media alternatives for text but are not clearly labelled as such. 

1.2.5 Audio Description (Prerecorded) There is no audio available on the help videos. 

1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence The DOM order does not match the visual order. The Home, Info, Feature adverts navigation comes before the Property Search navigation on the front-end of the website. Users would also expect the dropdown for Property Search to be intractable straight after clicking on property search. 

1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose Autocomplete not implemented on forms collecting personal information. 

1.4.4 Resize text When page zoom is used to 200% the page then has two-dimensional scroll and content is hidden off screen. 

1.4.5 Images of Text On pages such as “new application” text is present on images. 

1.4.10 Reflow When page zoom is used to 200% the page then has two-dimensional scroll and content is hidden off screen. 

1.4.11 Non-text Contrast Some icons do not have enough colour contrast (icons on property pages). 

1.4.12 Text Spacing If a user increases Text Spacing the left-hand navigation slightly breaks its layout. The line between elements drops down too far. 

2.1.1 Keyboard On the Housing options self-assessment: 

  • Next steps A popup appears after clicking “See more information about Private Rented and how it might be relevant to you”. As a keyboard only and screen reader user there is no way to close the popup. This issue applies to all popups that appear on the page. 

  • Local connections As a keyboard only user and screen reader when trying to save my local connection it doesn’t do anything. It only seems to work with an actual mouse. 

  • Required documents As a keyboard only user the button for “select one or more files to upload” receives no visual focus when I use my keyboard to navigate to the button. 

2.4.3 Focus Order Some pages autofocus out of sequence, for example, it would be expected behaviour for the next focusable item after clicking “Property search” in the header to be an element within the dropdown. 

2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) Links on the page do not make sense when taken out of context. 

2.4.5 Multiple Ways There is only one way to navigate to content. Inclusion of a Site Map or search functionality would resolve this issue. 

2.4.7 Focus Visible Not all elements on the website that can be focused actually receive a visual indication that they are focused. To resolve this issue would involve adding some sort of identifier (such as change of background colour, underline etc.) to focussed elements. 

3.2.1 On Focus Some pages refresh with error messages which aren’t announced to screen reader users as they interact with the page they are unaware of the issues, for example, on the forgotten password page after entering an incorrect login reference. 

3.3.1 Error Identification Enter an incorrect login reference and then click “reset,” the page refreshes with error messages. When the page refreshes your mouse is auto focused on the login reference input field with the error message appearing underneath the input field. 

The screen reader user is unaware of why the form didn’t submit successfully as the error message is not read out when focused on the input field. The user has to interact with the input field then continue reading to find out what the error is, then navigate back up to find the input field I need to edit. 

3.3.2 Labels or Instructions Help is positioned below or to the right of the input field, meaning the screen reader can only access this info after scrolling through forms. 

3.3.3 Error Suggestion Errors are identified but the messaging does not provide  
suggestions on how to enter correct information. 

4.1.2 Name, Role, Value There are instances of tabs created using <ul> on the house listing page but they are not marked up with ARIA controls such as tablist, tab and tabpanel. The dropdown for Property Search has no ARIA controls and the status change is not alerted to screen readers. Links have been used as the basis for an interactive component but the dynamic content that shows is not announced to screen reader users. 

4.1.3 Status Messages Where content is updated dynamically there should be a status message spoken by screen readers to alert to the new content. After successfully applying to reset password the page refreshes but the screen reader user is not made aware that the form has submitted correctly. They have to read through all the page content before finding out. This is also the case for Housing options self-assessment form confirmation page. On the local connections form page as a screen reader user after entering “Bram” for “Bramley” into the “start typing a location” screen reader users are not alerted to the options that are appearing. 

Disproportionate burden 

Leeds City Council believes all content should be accessible for everyone. We do not currently intend to claim disproportionate burden for any website content. 

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. 

Live video 

We do not post live video streams on the Leeds Homes website. 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility 

Help videos will need voiceovers adding. We aim to complete this by the end of 2026. 

Issues with the bidding process have been raised with the supplier to be included in their roadmap for future releases.  

We aim to fix any content-related issues by the end of 2026.  

Preparation of this accessibility statement 

This statement was prepared August 2019. It was last reviewed on 17 April 2026. 

This website was last tested on 2 December 2025. The test was carried out by Leeds City Council.  We tested across a variety of ages to make sure all of the website and different components were tested. We also tested the full bidding process, including the registration, logging in, password reset pages, registering a housing application and bidding for a home.