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Good practice Imported

New Zealand Government Web Accessibility Standard

New Zealand · Wellington · See the New Zealand profile · See the Wellington profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 9% 96/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

In 2010 New Zealand became the first country to make WCAG conformance mandatory for government websites; the standard now requires WCAG 2.2 Level AA (from March 2025), though a 2018 external audit found average agency compliance of only 65%.

65%
Average agency web-page compliance (2018)
75%
Accuracy of agency self-assessments vs. independent testing (2018)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Department of Internal Affairs — Government Chief Digital Officer (GCDO)
Period
2010–ongoing
Keywords
WCAG conformance, web accessibility standard, public sector mandate, self-assessment auditing, government digital services

Context

New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs adopted WCAG as an official government-website requirement in 2010 — the first country in the world to do so — intended to serve the roughly 1.1 million New Zealanders (24% of the population) living with a disability.

Activities

The standard has been revised repeatedly; from 17 March 2025, mandated agencies must ensure public-facing and internal digital content conforms to WCAG 2.2 Level AA, extending scope from websites toward applications and services.

Results

The most recent externally audited figures, from a 2018 self-assessment review, found agency web pages had an average compliance rate of 65% against the government's Self-Assessment Methodology, and that agencies' own self-assessments were only 75% accurate against independent testing.

Conclusions

No more recent independently audited, government-wide compliance figures were found, so current real-world conformance under the 2025 WCAG 2.2 update is not yet evidenced.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Department of Internal Affairs — Government Chief Digital Officer

Conditions for success

  • mandatory WCAG conformance written into government digital standards since 2010

Common failure modes

  • 2018 review found agency self-assessments only 75% accurate vs. independent testing
  • no more recent government-wide audited compliance figures published

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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