Contact us if you need help accessing material on this website
First up, we’re sorry if you’re having trouble accessing any material on this website. Please contact us if you need help, as the team at the PCO may be able to find alternative copies that provide the information you are looking for.
The accessibility standards the PCO aims to meet
This website aims to comply with:
NZ Government Web Accessibility Standard 1.2, which is based on WCAG 2.2.
However, we’re not 100% there yet. Accessibility to legislation for all New Zealanders is very important to us and we are still working to improve the access even further.
Known accessibility issues with this website
There are several known accessibility issues with legislation documents and website features, some of which are long-standing issues related to historical publishing processes:
We are progressively expanding the collection of historical legislation that is available through this website. Some of the legislation that’s been scanned from paper has been made available in PDF or other formats in advance of more accessible formats like HTML.
Agency-published legislation that this website links to is published by other agencies on other government websites and may only be available in PDF format or not be fully accessible. Contact the publishing agency about their policies and practices relating to accessibility of their instruments.
The PCO adds alt text for images and table summaries to versions of legislation it publishes. However, this information may not yet be available in versions of legislation published before 11 April 2015.
There is an empty heading in some legislation documents, which can be confusing when navigating the page for people using screen readers.
Some legislation text is very small and hard to read.
Headings have sometimes been used out of order, which can make the page structure unclear for people using screen readers.
The font Times New Roman, used in legislation, is difficult for people with dyslexia and other visual processing differences to read.
Some of the filter buttons on the search results page aren’t properly grouped or labelled. This means people who use screen readers are unable to understand how the filters relate to each other.
Some tables still have accessibility issues.
There may be other reasons why the PCO is unable to publish legislation in a manner that fully complies with accessibility standards. The final form and content of legislation is a matter for Parliament and the relevant administering agency. This may impact the accessibility of some legislation.
How the PCO is working to improve this site’s accessibility
The PCO’s approach for improving accessibility is to:
Require that an accessibility review is part of the PCO's “definition of done” for any new website feature.
Regularly undertaking accessibility testing with Axe Devtools and third-party audits to identify any issues.
Be transparent about any issues by keeping this page up to date.
Recommend that other government agencies create accessible HTML versions of any legislation they publish.
Convert more historic legislation from PDF to fully accessible HTML, aiming to invest every year until it’s fully converted.
Progressively pick a complex accessibility issue to try and solve. Our next focus is on the font and format of legislation.
Give feedback or report any accessibility problems
If you want to share feedback, ask for accessibility support, or report accessibility problems, please contact us. We are grateful for your feedback.
When reporting an accessibility problem, please tell us:
which page you are having a problem with
your operating system
your browser.
It is helpful if you can share the exact URL of any pages where you find problems. Thank you!