Accessible documents policy

The Regulator of Social Housing's accessibility statement.

This accessibility statement applies to the pages of the gov.uk website that are ‘owned and managed’ by the Regulator of Social Housing.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website and below we set out:

  • how accessible our website is
  • how you can contact us or report problems
  • what we are doing to meet the accessibility regulations and who is responsible for enforcing the regulations
  • when we published and last updated this statement.

1. How accessible this website is

The majority of the site is accessible and we are working to try and make it as accessible as possible. Unfortunately, it is not currently fully accessible because:

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • we have other document attachments such as large Excel spreadsheets that may not be accessible
  • some images need alt text
  • you can’t skip to the main content when using a screen reader.

2. Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format such as in an accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please:

email enquiries@rsh.gov.uk or

call 0300 124 5225 or

write to us at:

Referrals and Regulatory Enquiries team
Level 2
7-8 Wellington Place
Leeds LS1 4AP

We’ll consider your response and reply to you within 5 working days.

3. 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, contact our Referrals and Regulatory Enquiries team – enquiries@rsh.gov.uk or call 0300 124 5225.

Alternatively, you can contact the Government Digital Service, which is responsible for ensuring that public sector websites meet the accessibility standards on behalf of the Cabinet Office.

The gov.uk platform as a whole is administered by the GDS who have also published an accessibility statement.

4. Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission 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.

5. Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Regulator of Social Housing 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 accessibility regulations called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below. The AA standard aims to tackle the most common barriers.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some images may not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). All images should have now have alt text and we have limited the use of images where possible. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

  • Some of our publications are posted as PDFs, Word documents or Excel spreadsheets. We have provided a plain text webpage (‘HTML’) or accessible option (e.g. CSV/ODT) on those pages where possible.

  • HTML summaries have been provided for publications containing large amounts of technical data e.g. Statistical Data Return and Quarterly Survey as we are unable to simplify the data further with the current limitations for graphics on the gov.uk website. Where this is the case we have added a note on the page to make this clear and contact details where requests for information in other formats can be made.

  • We will continue to review the structure of our content such as headings and links to make it easier for visitors to find and go through.

6. Disproportionate burden

We do not feel that disproportionate burden applies. RSH is committed to improving accessibility and will make the changes necessary to do so.

7. Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

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. However, you can request these documents in a different format by emailing enquiries@rsh.gov.uk or call 0300 124 5225. Any new documents or content we publish will meet accessibility standards.

8. Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 4 August 2020. It was last reviewed on 2 June 2023.