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?
- What's changed in the standards and why?
- How to comply
- Coverage
- Compliance dates
- Testing your site
- Website assessment
- Contact and training
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.
Related
Coverage
The Standards are mandatory for any public website created by:
- Public Service departments
- the New Zealand Police
- the New Zealand Defence Force
- the Parliamentary Counsel Office
- the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service
Other State sector agencies are encouraged but not mandated to comply.
Compliance dates
- The New Zealand Government Web Standards 2.0 come into effect from 18 March 2009. These new standards may be used from that date.
- The New Zealand Government Web Standards 1.0 may still be used until 31 October 2009, after which time all new web development must use and meet version 2.0.
- All applicable government websites must meet the version 2.0 standards by 1 July 2010.
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 1 October 2010.
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.
