Having made submissions in August 2022, OCN was invited to provide feedback on the draft Regulation. Our pro bono lawyers laid out serious concerns with the proposals.
23 DECEMBER 2022 People in the market for a new apartment are being urged to steer clear of developers lacking a star rating or defect insurance, four years after the mass evacuation of a cracked apartment tower in Sydney. Read article, which appeared in several publications:> HERE
23 DECEMBER 2022 On the eve of the four year anniversary of the Opal Tower apartment calamity in Sydney, the peak body representing apartment owners is repeating its call for Owners Corporations throughout the State to take up an innovative and “game changing” offer by the State Government to solve building defect disputes – including 10 year insurance protection paid for by developers - and end the “lawyers picnic” in defects [...]
In the largest reform of building laws in decades, the NSW Government is working to create a new foundation for construction by looking at how they can improve laws, better protect consumers and support workers.
26 NOVEMBER 2022 A five-year battle to get structural problems in a Sydney unit block repaired has resulted in cosmetic fixes described by the NSW building boss as ‘lipstick on a pig’. The project will now become part of the Project Intervene scheme where Mr Chandler and his team can bypass the courts to engage directly with the developer to fix flaws. It's a move welcomed by Owners Corporation Network head [...]
21 NOVEMBER 2022 The peak body representing apartment owners in New South Wales is calling for Owners Corporations throughout the State to take up an innovative and “game changing” offer by the State Government to solve building defect disputes and end the “lawyers picnic” in dispute resolution with wealthy developers. Read Media Release:> 221121 Move to End Lawyers Picnic in Strata Disputes Welcomed
15 NOVEMBER 2022 Owners corporations can now dob in defective buildings up to six years old and receive help from the government to resolve the dispute outside the courts under an initiative set up by the state’s inaugural Building Commissioner. Karen Stiles, the head of Owners Corporation Network – an advocacy group for strata owners – welcomed the initiative and said owners were “crying out for help” to avoid lengthy and [...]
13 November 2022 The curse of the crisis that rendered apartments unsellable has moved into a new phase as the regulator grapples with the technical and reputational risks of giving buildings a green tick to go back into the pool of tradeable properties. Strata advocates say regulators need to be quicker to act. “If they can taint the title they have a duty to remove the stain if there is adeemed [...]
8 NOVEMBER 2022 The Owners Corporation Network (OCN) announced this week that they plan to be actively involved in the NSW state election, potentially tapping into the voting power of NSW’s one million-plus strata residents. With that in mind, they have now issued their 10-point manifesto and are calling for strata owners’ support in promoting policies that can become part of the debate heading for the state elections next year. Read [...]
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
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]
