Accessibility at Home Group and why it matters 

Thursday 21st May is global accessibility awareness day and we wanted to take the opportunity to explain what that means to us at Home Group. 

Accessibility means making sure that everyone can use digital products whatever their ability or circumstances. For us at Home Group, it means making sure everyone can use our website fully whether they're reporting a repair or looking for a home to rent.  

People with physical or mental disabilities might need information to be shown in a certain way. For example, someone hard of hearing might need a video to have subtitles so they can follow what's being said. Accessibility is a way of making sure everyone is included.  

Around 17 million people in the UK have some form of disability, according to the Family Resources Survey.  That's a huge group of people that might be excluded if websites aren't built with accessibility in mind. It's one of the reasons why customer involvement is so important to us here at Home Group. Getting feedback from real customers means we're able to make our services work for as many people as possible.  

Accessible design also often leads to better experiences for everyone.  For example, clear, well-structured content is easier for everyone to read.  Simple navigation also helps people find the information they're looking for quickly.

The good news is that accessibility doesn’t always require huge changes. For us, some of the small steps are: 

• using clear and descriptive headings 
• including subtitles on videos
• avoiding jargon and writing in plain English 
• writing meaningful link text (e.g. “Read more about accessibility” instead of “Click here”) 
• adding alternative text to images 
• ensuring good colour contrast 
• making sure our website can be navigated with a keyboard 

These simple improvements can significantly enhance usability for many people. Accessibility is central to our approach to delivering a reliable service to all our customers.