6 NOVEMBER 2022 The $400billion NSW apartment owners sector warns the Government led push towards making electric vehicles more affordable will cause more chaos and conflict state-wide in NSW apartments. Read media release:> 221106 Peak Body Calls for More Money to Provide Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
2 NOVEMBER 2022 The peak body for apartment owners is urging NSW apartment buyers to be cautious or steer clear of new projects that are not offering 10-year liability insurance which it describes as a “game changer” for protecting apartment and unit owners from dodgy builders. Read Media Release:> 221102 Decennial Liability Insurance a Game Changer
28 OCTOBER 2022 The Owners Corporation Network is calling for strata management companies to immediately provide full and complete disclosure on whether they have been subject to cyber attacks, after reports that a major strata management company is subject to a large ransom demand from cyber hackers. Read media release:> 221028 Peak Body Calls for Transparency Around Cyber Attacks
18 OCTOBER 2022 The $400billion apartment owners sector in New South Wales will mobilise in the lead up to the March 2023 State election to call for major changes to design, management, emergency preparedness and related issues. READ Press Release:> 221019 Peak Body Calls for Major New Apartment Design Changes
OCN MEDIA RELEASE: 16 SEPTEMBER 2022 Twenty years ago, The Owners Corporation Network (OCN) was formed by a group of apartment-owners from all across Sydney who discovered they were individually fighting the same problems: defects in their new buildings; unscrupulous developers refusing to fix them; and corrupt building and strata managers working against them. Back then, there was no one they could call on for help. So they decided to get [...]
OCN MEDIA RELEASE: 9 MAY 2022 Owners Corporation Network (OCN) has been working with the NSW Government to establish a comprehensive website that addresses all the aspects involved in resolving this question. This new website is available and will be launched this week on 12 May 22 via the “Drive Electric – EV ready Buildings” webinar. The website steps owners corporations and EV owners through who is responsible for the for [...]
OCN MEDIA RELEASE: 19 SEPTEMBER 2021 As the Premier said today, the Delta virus does not care who you are or where you live. “The Premier put the cat among the pigeons on Sunday announcing that local council pools will open on Monday 27 September. While this is very welcome and is clearly public pools, strata committees will get increasing requests and demands for the reopening of common strata facilities.”, Ms [...]
OCN MEDIA RELEASE: 20 AUGUST 2021 Health NSW needs a clearer strategy for directing and supporting apartment communities. The Chief Health Officer, Dr Chant, is rightly concerned about transmission in apartment buildings. Across Sydney these are chock full of residents. But the Public Health Orders treat a 40-storey high rise exactly the same as a free-standing home. That is a mistake. Strata Committees cannot manage a pandemic through by-laws. They are [...]
OCN MEDIA RELEASE: 28 JULY 2021 Executive Officer at Owners Corporation Network, Karen Stiles said the tool will take the guesswork out of buying an apartment in NSW. "The last thing prospective owners need is to spend their life savings buying into a problematic building, but in the past consumers have had to rely on the developer's word that the property is a safe and sound investment," Ms Stiles said. "This tool [...]
OCN MEDIA RELEASE: 25 June 2021 “The NSW strata sector is calling for greater clarity in Public Health Orders for apartment complexes”, Karen Stiles, Executive Officer of OCN said today. “The truth is there is no strata voice at the table”, she said. “This is why we have been calling for a Commissioner for Strata Living. We need someone at the table who understands how apartment buildings and apartment communities work”, [...]
Owners Corporation Network
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email [email protected]
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to [email protected]
