Accessibility at Gardeners Old Oak Common

Gardeners Old Oak Common is committed to providing an accessible and inclusive online experience for all visitors, including disabled gardeners, local residents and anyone accessing information about the Old Oak Common area. This Accessibility Statement explains how we work to meet recognised accessibility standards, the steps we have taken to support different access needs, and how you can contact us with any accessibility requests or feedback.

Our accessibility commitment

We aim to make our online information about gardening, green spaces and activities in Old Oak Common accessible and usable for as many people as possible. Our goal is to achieve and maintain compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1, level AA. These guidelines are internationally recognised and explain how to make web content easier to perceive, understand, navigate and interact with.

As we develop and update content for Gardeners Old Oak Common, we work to apply these guidelines consistently. This includes clear page structures, meaningful headings, descriptive text and avoiding reliance on colour alone to convey information.

Using screen readers

The Gardeners Old Oak Common website is designed to be compatible with modern screen readers so that blind and partially sighted users can explore gardening advice, community news and Old Oak Common area updates. We aim to provide text alternatives for images where relevant, so that important visual information is available to users who cannot see it.

Content is written in a logical reading order, and headings are used to organise sections so screen reader users can move quickly between topics such as accessible gardening tips, local events and site information. Whenever we introduce new content, we aim to label elements clearly so they are announced correctly by screen reader technology.

Keyboard navigation

The site is designed to support full keyboard navigation, so visitors can access information without using a mouse. You should be able to move through links, buttons and forms using common keys such as Tab, Shift plus Tab, Enter and the arrow keys. Interactive elements are arranged in a logical order and are highlighted when they receive focus, helping keyboard users understand where they are on the page.

We regularly review how keyboard navigation works across key pages, including those about gardening activities, accessibility information and Old Oak Common community resources. If you encounter any part of the site that cannot be accessed or used with a keyboard, please let us know so we can investigate and address the issue.

Readable content and layout

We aim to use clear language, short sentences and descriptive headings so that information about Gardeners Old Oak Common is easy to understand. We avoid unnecessary jargon and explain gardening terms where possible to support users with different levels of experience and literacy.

Pages are designed with sufficient colour contrast between text and background to support users with low vision or colour vision deficiency. Text can be enlarged using standard browser tools without loss of content or functionality, so you can adjust the display to suit your needs while exploring information about accessible gardening in Old Oak Common.

Ongoing improvements

Accessibility is an ongoing process. As we add new gardening resources, community updates and local area information, we continue to test and improve the site so that it remains accessible. Where we find issues that prevent us from meeting WCAG 2.1 AA standards, we prioritise fixes and work to resolve them as soon as reasonably possible.

Contacting us about accessibility

If you experience any difficulty using the Gardeners Old Oak Common website, or if you need information in a different format, we encourage you to contact us. You can get in touch to request accessible formats, raise a technical problem, or share ideas about how we can improve access to gardening information in the Old Oak Common area.

When contacting us about an accessibility issue, it is helpful if you can tell us which page you were visiting, what you were trying to do and what went wrong. This helps us understand the problem and work towards a suitable solution. We review all accessibility feedback and use it to improve the experience for everyone who visits Gardeners Old Oak Common.