Accessibility standards and how nsw.gov.au meets them
We ensure everyone can use nsw.gov.au – our design makes online access simple, fair and inclusive. Here's how.
Why accessibility matters
Everyone in NSW needs to be able to use our website.
Our users are all different. They come from many educational backgrounds. They include people of all ages, genders, cultures, and from every part of NSW.
People also have different abilities. Some people may have:
- trouble seeing or hearing
- difficulty moving a mouse
- challenges with reading or understanding information
- other physical or cognitive needs.
Accessibility is about removing barriers so everyone can use the website.
Rules we follow
To ensure accessibility, we follow these laws and guidelines:
- All-of-Government Disability Inclusion Plan – NSW's plan to include everyone
- Disability Discrimination Act 1992 – Federal law
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines – international standards.
Learn about accessibility and your responsibilities.
Built-in accessibility
We've designed nsw.gov.au to be accessible from the ground up. Here's how.
The website adjusts to fit different devices, whether you're on your smartphone or a desktop computer.
We test with assistive technology. We regularly test our content using screen readers and magnifiers to make sure it works for people who are blind or have low vision.
You can use your keyboard. Webpages (and some forms) on nsw.gov.au let you navigate using just your keyboard.
You can adjust the text size. Make text bigger or smaller using browser zoom settings or keyboard shortcuts (ctrl and + or - on Windows, or ⌘ and + or - on Mac).
We use colours that work. We choose colours so everyone can tell different elements apart, including people with colour blindness.
How we help content editors
Creating an accessible website is the responsibility of all the people who work on it.
To support agency partners to create accessible content we:
- monitor webpages for minimum standards
- add features such as text-to-voice tools
- share customer feedback with content editors
- provide specialist training through our Learning Hub.
What content editors must do
To make nsw.gov.au accessible to everyone, all content editors must stick to these guidelines.
Design with accessibility in mind. Read about Accessibility basics.
Write in plain English for Grade 9 reading age. Read Writing inclusively.
Choose webpages over PDFs where possible because HTML is more accessible. Where you have to use PDFs, tag them in Adobe Acrobat so screen readers can read them in a logical order.
Add alt (alternative) text to images so people using screen readers know what images show. Read about using alt text and captions.
Provide alternatives for multimedia. Make sure people who can't see videos or hear audio can still access the information they contain (via captions or audio descriptions).
Keep it simple. Use the Drupal CMS component catalogue we've provided to ensure accessibility.