15 JANUARY 2021 The D&PB legislation is incredibly important to owners – it creates a retrospective duty of care to owners by designers and building practitioners. OCN made a detailed submission on the draft Regulations to improve consumer protections. > Download PDF
The small red car was illegally parked. A handwritten note read, “No power when we got home. No parks outside. Call Adrian…” That was from the night before, when it all began. Since early evening I’d had no hot water. Now, at 10am, I was locked out myself, barefoot, unwashed, on the street, in a thunderstorm, staring at the kerbside evidence of collective frustration. Not because I’d forgotten my keys, but [...]
13 December 2020 Businesses at the base of Sydney's harrowed Mascot Towers have been caught between the directives of a government minister and the building's owners corporation, which has given them a week's notice to vacate over safety issues. The owners of seven shops say they will lose everything if they are forced to close a week before Christmas, following a letter from the lawyers for the owners regarding unstable facades [...]
15 SEPTEMBER 2020 Karen Stiles, Executive Officer of the Owners Corporation Network, joins Jimmy Thomson on Flat Chat Wrap Podcast 91 'First there is the redoubtable Karen Stiles who is the Executive Officer at the Owners Corporation Network (OCN) and, as such, has a seat at the table for some of the most critical discussions being made about NSW strata in decades. Karen has come on to the podcast to explain [...]
28 JUNE 2020 The Office of the Building Commissioner (OBC) has just finished the initial appointments to commence the Occupation Certificate Audits from 1 September 2020. The talent pool of applicants was very impressive. Experienced Designers, Contractors and Certifiers with 15-years experience will soon be in the field to work with the Building Commissioner. A powerful new tool is being built inside BRD to provide a single view of all projects [...]
17 JUNE 2020 The NSW Building Commissioner has revealed an apartment tower in western Sydney, which he says is probably the worst he's inspected, compelled him to convince the state government to give him the powers to clean up the industry. David Chandler has warned developers he will use his new powers to stop them forcing people who buy off-the-plan to settle on apartments in buildings with significant defects. With structural flaws [...]
31 January 2020 The New South Wales government is planning to introduce a new ratings system for builders and developers in an attempt to protect consumers from buying dodgy apartments. The tool will create a risk profile for every planned project based on the track records of the builders, designers, developers and certifiers involved in the development. And the legal reforms accompanying it will give the government stronger powers to stop occupancy [...]
20 January 2020 Robin Son had planned to move out of his parents' West Ryde home soon after he bought an apartment in a Lidcombe building in late 2014. But ever since a storm ripped off the building's roof in January 2016, causing millions of dollars in damages, the 34-year-old has been unable to afford to move with his wife into the two-bedroom apartment they poured their savings into. Instead, they [...]
15 January 2020By 2030 the NSW construction landscape will be very different, and it won’t much matter what the industry’s past gatekeepers think they can do to maintain the status quo.The forces driving this are different.Here are some reasons why:Loss of confidence – Construction’s customers have lost confidence in both the industry’s public and private institutionsHype – Promises of how new legislation, the latest construction technologies and changing construction methods would [...]
13 January 2020 A prolific building certifier is fighting to save his career after allegations he allowed people to move into two Sydney apartment towers while they were "still a building site". Valerio "Vic" Lilli is challenging the Building Professionals Board's decision to reprimand him and strip him of his accreditation for five years for signing off on the "Atmosphere" buildings at Castle Hill. The Building Professionals Board has alleged the [...]
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 enquiries@ocn.org.au
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 enquiries@ocn.org.au
