Accessibility Statement
Our Commitment
Vander Designs wants everyone to be able to use this website and the Freya's tenant portal, including people who browse with a screen reader, navigate by keyboard, rely on magnification, or need reduced motion.
This matters most in the tenant portal. It is the only place a resident can see what they owe, read their lease, sign a contract or report a fault. If it cannot be used with assistive technology, a tenant is locked out of their own tenancy. We treat that as a service failure, not a cosmetic one.
The Standard We Aim At
We aim to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA. This is the standard most widely used internationally, and it is what we measure ourselves against.
We do not currently claim to conform to it. A full audit against WCAG 2.2 AA has not yet been carried out on this site. We would rather tell you that plainly than publish a conformance claim we have not tested.
What We Have Done
The following are built into the site today and were verified during development:
- A visible keyboard focus outline on interactive elements, so keyboard users can see where they are
- Semantic headings and landmarks, so a screen reader can navigate by structure
- Text alternatives on meaningful images
- Forms with labels attached to their inputs, and errors reported in text rather than by colour alone
- Dialogs that trap focus, close on Escape, and return focus when dismissed
- Layouts that reflow to mobile, tablet and desktop widths without horizontal scrolling
- Colour choices intended to hold contrast against our dark background
Known Gaps
We would rather list these than let you discover them. As of the effective date above:
No independent audit yet
No formal WCAG 2.2 AA audit, and no testing with real assistive technology users, has been completed. Our accessibility work so far has been developer-led.
Contract signing not fully verified
The electronic signature flow captures a signature by drawing on a canvas. We have not yet verified a non-mouse route through that step. If you need to sign a document and cannot use the drawing area, contact us and we will arrange an alternative.
Data tables and charts
Some admin and reporting screens present dense tables and charts whose screen-reader behaviour has not been fully checked. These are staff-facing rather than tenant-facing.
Contrast of secondary text
Small supporting text is set in muted tones on a dark background. Most of it has been reviewed, but not every instance has been measured against the AA contrast ratio.
Documents we generate
Lease contracts and statements are produced as PDFs. These are not yet tagged for accessibility. If you need a document in an accessible or plain-text format, ask and we will provide one.
If You Hit a Barrier
If any part of this website or the tenant portal stops you doing something, please tell us. You do not need to know why it failed or use any particular terminology. Telling us the page and what you were trying to do is enough.
We aim to respond within 5 working days, and we will tell you what we can fix and by when. Where a fix will take time, we will offer another way to get the same thing done, by phone, email or in person.
No tenant will be disadvantaged, charged a late fee, or lose a deadline because an accessibility barrier on our side prevented them acting in time. If that happens, tell us and we will put it right.
Alternatives That Are Always Available
Everything in the tenant portal can also be done without it:
- Request your statement, invoice or lease by email and we will send it to you
- Report a maintenance fault by phone on 081 147 0000, or 085 147 0000 for an emergency
- Sign a lease in person at our office instead of electronically
- Ask for any document in large print or plain text
Keeping This Honest
This statement describes the site as it actually is, not as we would like it to be. We review it whenever we make a significant change to the website or the tenant portal, and we will update the known gaps above as we close them. If you find something wrong with this statement itself, that is worth reporting too.