The office of the Government Chief Digital Officer in the Digital Services branch, Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) owns and manages the content on this website.
While there are no absolute barriers to access for disabled people using our website, we know a little more work is required to fully conform to WCAG 2.1 at Level AA.
Govt.nz current accessibility issues
We know parts of this website are not fully accessible. Some of these issues we’re working on and others we can provide support on a case-by-case basis.
Font size is set in pixels
This may prevent user preferences from changing the default text size. People with visual impairments may have difficulty reading the content.
Some Te Reo Māori not marked up correctly
Some words in Te Reo Māori are not marked up correctly — this means screen readers may struggle with correct pronunciation.
Some PDF documents do not have an accessible version
Accessible plain text (TXT) versions are provided alongside some, but not all PDFs.
This means people who rely on screen readers or who need to modify the way the text looks could have difficulty reading or understanding some content.
This example can be found under the heading ‘Order by post using the paper application form’ on the page Order a birth certificate.
Two main content sections on ‘The Govt.nz app — all your key services, your way’ page
The introduction of a new ‘main content’ section above/before the sidebar (and typically the main content area) changes the relative order in which the sidebar appears.
The second main content area from the ‘Welcome to the govt.nz app’ H2 heading is not accessible until a user has tabbed through the whole app section side menu.
Shielded Site external widget accessibility issues
WCAG Success Criteria failures
The widget <iframe> has no name
Without an accessible name, screen readers cannot identify the purpose of the iframe, making it difficult for visually impaired users to understand what it is without having to interact with it.
The widget allows screen reader access to the underlying page
If the underlying page remains accessible to screen readers, visually impaired users can accidentally navigate away from the Shielded Site widget while it remains visible on the screen. This can cause privacy issues, confusion and difficulty in navigating back to the widget.
The ‘Menu’ button is not keyboard focusable in reverse focus order
This issue makes it difficult for keyboard-only users to navigate backward through the interface, potentially causing frustration and hindering efficient navigation.
In the default view, the ‘Close’ button overlaps the ‘Privacy policy’ link
This can make it hard for users to click on the ‘Privacy policy’ link, especially for those with motor impairments or those using screen magnifiers.
What we’re doing to improve the accessibility of this website
We have work planned to address the current accessibility barriers. We’ll continue to review this site for accessibility to discover how we’re doing and where we can improve.
We last audited this website with an automated scan in and a manual scan in .
