Accessibility

This website is designed to be used by everyone, including disabled people — a diverse group that makes up 24% of New Zealand’s population.

Experiencing accessibility issues?

Let us know if:

there is information on this website that you cannot access
you need any content sent to you in a different format
you have suggestions on how we can improve the accessibility of this website.

In your message include:

the address (URL) of the web page
your name
your email or postal address
if applicable, the format you need — for example, audio compact disc (CD), braille, New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL), Easy Read.

For tips on reporting website accessibility problems, see contacting organisations about inaccessible websites — W3C.

Contact us

Email: web.standards@dia.govt.nz

Postal address:
Web Standards Team
Digital Public Service
Department of Internal Affairs
PO Box 805
Wellington 6140

Phone: 0508 468 883 (Toll-free)

Make a formal accessibility complaint

To make a formal complaint, see the Complaints Procedure on the Department of Internal Affairs website.

If you make a complaint and you are not satisfied with the response, you can get support. To learn about your options, see:

About the accessibility of this website

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) owns and manages the content on this website. It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. The text should be easy to see and read.

At a minimum, this website aims to:

meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA, as per the NZ Government Web Accessibility Standard
work on the most common browsers, platforms and devices, and with assistive technologies.

This means that you should be able to:

change colours, contrast levels, fonts and text size
zoom in up to 400% without spilling off the screen or having to scroll horizontally at small resolutions
navigate the website using just a keyboard, switch, or speech recognition software
navigate the website using a screen reader — including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver.

Conformance status

On 8 June 2023, all web pages at https://govtnz.github.io/web-a11y-guidance/ conform to WCAG 2.1 at Level AA, except for pages with any of the following features described below.

Most headings have a button next to them that’s visually indicated with a “§” symbol and called “Copy link to this section”. Clicking this button shows a tooltip that says “Link copied to clipboard”. The tooltip disappears after a few seconds, which is not enough time for some users to read it. This fails WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable.
The YouTube video player has some accessibility issues including, but not limited to, the following:
- some text, such as the video’s title, has insufficient contrast depending on the video’s background, making it difficult to see for some people — this fails WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
- some controls lack a visible focus indicator, so sighted keyboard users will not always know which control they’re currently interacting with — this fails WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible
- the visible focus indicator can have insufficient contrast, depending on the video’s background, making it hard for sighted keyboard users to see which control they’re currently interacting with — failing WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast.

If you experience any other accessibility barriers, please let us know.

The technologies relied upon for the content on this site include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and ARIA.

What we are doing to improve the accessibility of this website

DIA is investigating solutions to this site’s WCAG conformance issues. We will continue to review this site for accessibility using automated and manual testing to discover how we are doing and where we can improve.

Our commitment to accessibility

As signatory to the Accessibility Charter, DIA is committed to delivering all information on this website so that it is accessible.

Accessibility tips for using this website

Here are some tips that may help to make your experience on this website more accessible.

Make content on a web page larger

Print a web page in large text

Select the browser’s ‘print’ function.
In the settings, adjust the scale to the text size you want — the larger you make the scale, the larger the text on the printout will be.
Print the page.

NZ Relay assistance

If you are Deaf, hearing impaired, Deaf-blind, or speech impaired, you can use the free NZ Relay telecommunications assistance service to phone any numbers on this website.

Device configuration and assistive technology support

You can modify your device to suit your individual accessibility needs.

**Table 1:** Modify your device
Technology company	Support
Microsoft Accessibility	Learn about built-in accessibility tools and features in Microsoft Technologies like Windows.
Apple Accessibility	Find out how Apple supports inclusive use of Mac computers and portable devices like iPhone, iPad, Watch, TV and HomePod.
Google Accessibility	Read about Google’s support for devices using the Android operating system, like smart phones and tablet computers.