Meeting the standards
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Meeting the standards

New standards released

The New Zealand Government Web Standards 2.0 were released in March 2009 and replace the previous version, the New Zealand Government Web Standards 1.0.  

Index

Which version should you use?

In order to ease transition to the new standards, version 1.0 may still be used in development until 31 October 2009 (see Compliance dates, below). This is to allow developers to come up to speed.

However, it is highly recommended that websites are built or redeveloped to the new standards as soon as possible.

In most cases, the new web standards are no more difficult to meet, and are in some cases easier to meet, than the previous ones. In a few cases, such as the multimedia standards, the bar is now higher.

What's changed in the standards and why?

See the New standards transition guides.

How to comply

To comply, websites must meet each of the requirements in each of the sections of the New Zealand Government Web Standards.

If using version 2.0, agencies must meet the W3C's WCAG2.0 standards, level AA, which have been adopted as our technical standards, as well as the New Zealand-specific requirements.  See the Technical standards section for how to do this.

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Coverage

The Standards are mandatory for any public website created by:

Other State sector agencies are encouraged but not mandated to comply.

Compliance dates

Testing your site

Each WCAG2.0 standard has links to "Sufficient Techniques" for meeting the standard. These techniques contain examples and resources for testing and development. For an overview of how this works, see the Overview of the Technical standards and the Technical web guides. 

Website assessment

An agency must conduct standards assessments of all the websites for which it has responsibility at least once a year, the results of which must be submitted to Government Technology Services (GTS). The first assessment is not due until March 2011.

Guidance and examples

See the Web guides section for help and advice on a growing range of web development topics, including moving to the new standards. 

Contact and training

Contact the web standards team with questions and training requests.

New Zealand Government Agencies that must comply with NZGWS

Archives New Zealand
Crown Law Office
Department of Building and Housing
Department of Conservation
Department of Corrections
Department of Internal Affairs
Department of Labour
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Education Review Office
Government Communications Security Bureau
Inland Revenue Department
Land Information New Zealand
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (On 1 July 2010 the New Zealand Food Safety Authority amalgamated with the Ministry)
Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Economic Development
Ministry of Education
Ministry for the Environment
Ministry of Fisheries
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Ministry of Health
Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Māori Development
Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs
Ministry of Research, Science and Technology
Ministry of Social Development
Ministry of Transport
Ministry of Women's Affairs
National Library of New Zealand
New Zealand Customs Service
New Zealand Defence Force
New Zealand Food Safety Authority (On 1 July 2010 the NZFSA ceased to exist as a stand-alone Public Service department, and amalgamated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry)
New Zealand Police
New Zealand Security Intelligence Service
Parliamentary Counsel Office
Serious Fraud Office
State Services Commission
Statistics New Zealand
The Treasury