This website is designed to be used by everyone.

Web accessibility is essential for disabled people and useful for everyone in a variety of situations.

On this page

• Problems accessing this website
• About the accessibility of this website
• What we’re doing to improve the accessibility of this website

Problems accessing this website

Let us know if:

• there’s information on this website that you cannot access
• you need any content sent to you in a different format
• you’ve 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, Braille or New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL).

Accessibility tips for using this website

Contact Govt.nz

govtnz@dia.govt.nz

About the accessibility of this website

The office of the Government Chief Digital Officer in Te Kōtui Whitiwhiti | Digital Public Service branch, Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) owns and manages the content on this website.

Te Kōtui Whitiwhiti - Digital Public Service — DIA

It’s 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 you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels, fonts and text size
• zoom in up to 400% without text 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.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 — World Wide Web Consortium W3C

NZ Government Web Standards — digital.govt.nz

Conformance status

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.

If you need an accessible version of a PDF, email govtnz@dia.govt.nz.

Request for NZ birth certificate or printout form BDM93B accessible alternative (TXT 5.5KB)

This example can be found under the heading ‘Order by post using the paper application form’ on the page Order a birth certificate.

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.

SC 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value — World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Content is obscured at high zoom levels

When zoomed in, the ‘Close’ button overlaps other content, making it hard for users to access all the information.

SC 1.4.4: Resize Text and 1.4.10 Reflow — World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Low text colour contrast

Some of the text has low contrast, reducing its readability and making it difficult to read for users with visual impairments.

SC 1.4.3: Contrast (minimum) — World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

The ‘Menu’ button lacks colour contrast

The ‘Menu’ button has low contrast, making it hard for users to see and interact with it.

SC 1.4.11: Non-text Contrast — World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Text that looks like headings is not marked up as headings in HTML

This can confuse screen reader users, as the structure and hierarchy of the content are not properly conveyed.

SC 1.3.1: Info and Relationships — World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Some scrollable content sections have no visible keyboard focus indicator

Without a visible focus indicator, sighted keyboard-only users may struggle to navigate and interact with the content.

SC 2.4.7: Focus Visible — World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

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.

SC 1.3.1: Info and Relationships — World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Usability issues (not WCAG failures)

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 July 2024 and a manual scan in February 2023.