Government Digital Accessibility Forum 2026
Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People and the Government Digital Delivery Agency hosted New Zealand’s fourth Government Digital Accessibility Forum on 21 May 2026. The event marked Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
The forum brought together public servants, community leaders, and accessibility experts. They shared practical ways to make digital services easier for disabled people to use.
The theme was “Digital accessibility starts with small changes.” Speakers shared lived experience and practical advice. Attendees left with ideas they can use in their everyday work.
Video of the forum
Video transcript
[Grant] Kia ora koutou.
Nau mai, haere mai.
Ki tēnei hui, haere mai,
Haere mai, haere mai, mihi mai.
It's lovely to have you all here with us for the Government Digital Accessibility Forum, sometimes pronounced "g'daf".
We've got a really brilliant session for you this morning. We're going to go through a number of speakers and then we've got some panellists who are ready to receive and talk to you about all sorts of different ways of bringing accessibility to life, and doing what we need to do inside government and across the wider community.
I'm going to start us with a karakia.
Whakataka te hau ki te uru
Whakataka te hau ki te tonga
Kia mākinakina ki uta
Kia mātaratara ki tai
E hī ake ana te ata kura
He tio, he huka, he hauhū.
Haumi e! Hui e! Tāiki e!
E mihi atu ki hoa mahi,
E mihi ana ki te mana whenua.
Ko Grant Carpenter toku ingoa
I'm very lucky to facilitate you this session for you today. I am an Agency Partnership Lead, part of the Government Digital Delivery Agency. I want to acknowledge all of those who've worked very hard to bring this session together today and all the hard work that has gone in from both our panellists and our speakers. I'm just going to hand over to Shu Run. Shu Run is part of Whaikaha. She's just going to talk us through how the session's going to run and some of the technicalities of pinning your interpreters and some other detail. Welcome.
[Shu Run] Kia ora koutou, and welcome to the Government Digital Accessibility Forum.
Ko Shu Run Yap toku ingoa, and my sign name is Shu Run, which is the same sign as fast or dash. I am a short Asian woman in my early 30s. Got long dark hair and today I'm wearing a florally dress. I am the Principal Advisor, Operations and Delivery at Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People, and I will give you some tips on meeting accessibility today and then we will talk briefly about the purpose of the day. So, first things first, for NZSL interpreters and live captioning, we have two NZSL interpreters for the forum today. So, you will see Scott Hamilton is spotlit alongside me and we will have Angela Murray as well. So, they should be spotlighted for you throughout the event today. But if you do need to see them, you should be able to pin them on your screen. You should be able to do this by hovering your mouse over the video of the interpreter and you can click the three dots in the top right corner of the video and click pin. If this is not available to you, please let us know through the chat. We also have live captioning. So you might see that we have some live captioners joined us today. So on the bottom of this webinar window, there's a show captions icon isn't there. You can click on the more icon which has three dots and then click show captions. The captions will automatically appear above the meeting controls toolbar. However, if you prefer to have your closed captions display on a separate browser window or a different device, you can use the link that Nicole's added into the chat. There's also a QR code available on the screen which can you can use a phone or a mobile device to scan and that will open up the closed captions on a separate device for you. Moving on, we're going to talk about the purpose of Government Digital Accessibility Forum today. So the theme of the forum for today in 2026 is "Digital accessibility starts with small changes."
As we move towards an increasingly digital world, how can we all incorporate small changes in our day-to-day, that build up to lasting change over time? What does real impact look and feel like? I encourage you to think about how this forum might support you in your practice. Now I will pass you back to our emcee Grant.
[Grant] Thank you Shu Run. I think it's a huge piece, isn't it? Figuring out how we can make those small things on a daily basis that add up to a big result. I'm going to hand over now to Paula Tesoriero. She's the Chief Executive Officer for the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha, and she's going to talk us through a little bit about their work and the purpose of this forum as well. Welcome Paula.
[Paula] Thanks Grant. Paula speaking. Ngā mihi nui, kia koutou katoa. I'm Paula the Chief Executive of Whaikaha -
the Ministry of Disabled People. My sign name is these two fists moving in a forward direction like a bicycle, and I am wearing a black shirt with a gold ends to my collar. I've got headphones on and short dark blonde hair and I'm I have a purple background. Thank you to everyone for joining online today and for taking time out of your busy schedules to be part of this really important conversation. Your presence here signals a shared commitment to making digital services work better for everyone. Today, Whaikaha is proud to be hosting the Government Digital Accessibility Forum to mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day. This is the first time Whaikaha has hosted the Government Digital Accessibility Forum also known as GDAF. Whaikaha has a leadership mandate to improve the lives of disabled people not through isolated fixes but through system level change. Digital accessibility is a core part of that system and change is needed. In previous years, this forum has been hosted by the Government Chief Digital Officer, who has now moved out of the Department of Internal Affairs to the Government Digital Delivery Agency, a new branded business unit inside the Public Service Commission. I want to acknowledge the Government Digital Delivery Agency's ongoing leadership in digital accessibility and for the strong foundations they continue to lead. We are really grateful though for the opportunity to host the forum this year and to work to strengthen digital accessibility together. For this year's forum, we're focused on lived experience and knowledge, navigating and designing digital systems, tools, and services. Because accessibility is not abstract. It shows up in everyday moments when someone tries to apply for support, access information, or simply take part in public life online. We have assembled an impressive programme featuring disabled technical experts, organisations collaborating with disabled people's organisations, international accessibility practitioners, and supportive allies. I invite you to take what you learned today into your own work and conversations and think about how we can collectively and individually make changes that deliver digital services that truly work for everyone. The key takeaway we hope you leave with is this: small practical changes matter. You don't always need a large programme of work or a major system overhaul to make a difference. Often it can be in everyday decisions. How we design a form, structure information, write content, or choose a digital tool. It can be how we choose to proactively offer and accommodate the accessibility needs of others. It's in how we respond to people giving us feedback about something that doesn't work well for them. Think of these as small habits and opportunities to make a more accessible world for disabled people that can be repeated easily. Small changes easy to adopt, sustained over time that create lasting impact. When these changes are embedded into our day-to-day work, they don't just benefit disabled people, they improve digital experiences for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand. Alongside those small changes, we also need and are working alongside the Government Digital Delivery Agency to ensure at the system wide level, we are working towards government systems and services that are public facing, being much more accessible for disabled people. Though we need both, the small changes you can make every day in what you do and what you provide and we need system level change. I encourage each of you to leave today with a clear intention. Choose one change that you can make in your own work around accessibility and commit to start doing it now. It might be revising a document, testing a form with a screen reader, changing how you ask about access needs, or listening really carefully when people tell you that it doesn't work. These actions might feel modest, but when taken consistently and across government, they add up to change. Global Accessibility Awareness Day reminds us that accessibility is not a one-off effort. It's not a compliance exercise. It can make a fundamental change to the lives of disabled people when they can access information at the same speed and rate as everyone. By keeping lived experience at the centre of our digital decisions and embedding accessibility into everyday practice, we can build digital services that are fairer, more usable for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand. So, thank you for being part of this forum and for the role that you play in shaping digital government. We have a collective responsibility to do better. I hope that today leaves you challenged and confident to take those next steps and please reach out to the GDDA and us for support. Ngā mihi nui,
I hope you enjoy the rest of the forum. Thank you.
[Grant] Thank you Paula. And as part of the Government Digital Delivery Agency, I'm really excited at the opportunity to work with Whaikaha and I see it as a real relationship and partnership as we go forward. And I'm going to hand over now to Myles Ward. Myles Ward is the Deputy Secretary for the Government Digital Delivery Agency. Now just before we do, I just want to tell you a little bit about how we're going to run the session today after Myles and Myles is coming through on a recorded session. We're going to move into a series of speakers. We have three speakers and then at the end of those speakers we're going to take a five minute break and then we'll come back and we have three amazing panelists who are going to talk about some of the work that they've done. So there'll be an opportunity for a little break. Uh we're hoping that'll probably be about eleven o'clock.
So now I'm going to hand over to Myles. Welcome.
[Myles] Paula, thank you. Thank you for opening this year's Government Digital Accessibility Forum which continues to highlight the great digital accessibility work happening across government. It is fitting that Whaikaha is hosting this year's forum. Given its unique role as a system leader for disabled people, digital accessibility is a key part of the work we are doing to improve the consistency and quality of digital services for all New Zealanders. I also echo Paula's words on how accessibility should be routine, embedded, and owned by everyone who is involved in delivering digital information and services.
In December 2025, Cabinet approved the Digital Government Target State which sets the future direction and vision for how the New Zealand government designs, delivers and operates digital services. The vision is to transform the public sector operating model moving towards a customer orientated approach. In April, the Government Chief Digital Officer moved out of DIA to its new home at the Government Digital Delivery Agency, GDDA. A new brand of business unit at PSC. The new Government Digital Delivery Agency has an important role in fulfilling the vision for an inclusive digital government. We work to ensure everyone in New Zealand can easily access the services and the information they need. So what are the guiding principles? Well, a guiding principle is inclusive access and equity. This means that digital services are usable by all New Zealanders. Accessibility is a core component of good digital delivery and an essential part of the Digital Government Target State. Our plan? Our plan is to make the delivery of services more modular. Baking accessibility into reusable components and consolidating channels will save us time and money as well as produce accessible digital products. We're raising the visibility of digital accessibility across government by making sure that government agencies are considering the need of disabled people and their digital products and services. A sign of accessibility maturity is how well agencies have embedded accessibility into their culture, into their processes, into their behaviours, from strategy to everything that they do across the organisation. In 2025, the OECD Digital Government Index noted that New Zealand scores near the bottom of the country rankings for user-driven services. The score reinforces the need for government to take a more human-centred and proactive approach to building and running inclusive and accessible digital services.
So, what are our long-term goals? Well, they include agencies actively working to improve digital accessibility. To do this, we've been raising the profile of accessibility within government agencies. We're using a tool that some of you might have heard of, the Centralised Web Accessibility Checker. This tool runs automated tests for accessibility errors on publicly facing government websites. This tool informs a system view of accessibility across government as well as providing insights agencies can use to improve accessibility. These automatic tools cannot find all errors though, so they're just a check, but they are an easy and cost-effective check that improves accessibility. Publishing agency and website leadership boards on digital.govt.nz increases the transparency and helps measure progress towards a fully accessible digital public service. It also helpful to have a bit of competition to make sure that government is keeping accessibility front of mind for all digital tech including new tech. The GCDO is currently working on a new Digital Accessibility Standard. This new standard will continue to apply to websites but will also apply to mobile apps, office documents like Word, Excel, PDF and PowerPoints. Adopting this new standard will align New Zealand with jurisdictions like Canada and Australia. We're also partnering with officials from Whaikaha in the development of this new standard. So, thank you Paula. The way that we are working as a partner is an excellent example of how government must work to transition to a customer focused service ready digital government. Digital accessibility is a shared system responsibility driven by insights that are grounded in the lived experiences of disabled people. By steadily improving accessibility across digital government, making the small practical changes that make a difference. These help ensure that disabled New Zealanders can access public information and services online with the same ease, dignity, and confidence as everyone else. This is more than a legal or policy obligation. Rather, it reflects our shared purpose, commitment to equity, participation, and trust in government. I encourage everyone, especially leaders, to champion accessibility and for government to work together to deliver digital services that work for all New Zealanders. You can find out more about the work we're doing by going to digital.govt.nz.
Kia ora, and all the best for your forum. Thank you.
[Grant] Kia ora, thank you, Myles. Thank you, Paula, Myles for your presentations. You can see that there is a lot going on in government to support accessibility and lots of large things I think,
but also this forum is about those small things that you can do. Now I'm going to hand over we have three presenters. First up, we have James Anderson-Pole who is the Manager of Interpreting and Translation for Deaf Aotearoa. We have Leigh-Ann Harris, the Community Engagement Advisor and Accessibility Lead for Metlink. And then we're going to go to Ginny Baddeley who's the Deputy Chief Executive of Strategy and Enablement here at Whaikaha - Ministry for Disabled People. I'm going to start off with James. Welcome James. It's good to have you with us this morning.
[James] Thank you, Grant. Kia ora koutou, kia ora everybody. It's great to see so many people here taking this valuable opportunity. Well done to Whaikaha - the Ministry of Disabled People for hosting this event this year. My name is James Anderson-Pole. I work for Deaf Aotearoa as the Manager of the NZSL Interpreting and Translation Service. Just quickly, I'd like to clarify the difference between interpreting and translation. A lot of people think of interpreting and translation and think there isn't a difference there. And maybe you've seen sign language interpreters on TV next to the prime minister at the post cabinet briefings. Interpreter works in a live setting. So interpreting between English and NZSL.
So it could be at a doctor's appointment, a job interview or yeah, even interpreting at this forum as you can see interpreters here and in a prime minister's briefings and lots of different events. So that's live interpreting. Translation on the other hand is different. Translation is when a translator takes an English text or document and is filmed by video with an accurate NZSL translation that has been pre-prepared. So that translation becomes a fixed resource that can be used again and again.
Okay. So that's out of the way. I'm excited today to talk about the topic of government digital accessibility. Digital accessibility is a really important topic for the Deaf community. The Deaf community needs access to government services in the same way that everyone else does through digital channels.
I'm really proud to say that the Deaf community has been a leader in this space in the digital space. For example, when text messages were first set up in the late '90s, Deaf people were some of the first people to use it. And then later when video calling arrived, of course, Deaf people were the first adopters of that. And now everyone, hearing or Deaf, use text messages and video calls every day. But it all started with Deaf people.
More recently, Deaf people have been using AI. And we all know AI has its various problems and advantages. But more and more Deaf people are using English based AI tools to help them understand complex English documents and write clear English communications. I myself use AI to polish up my English when I'm writing. We've also seen not just in English but in NZSL, AI being taken up and it's used to create NZSL tools. So we have a Kiwi business called Kara Technologies who are who are developing NZSL avatars at the moment. So this is exciting times.
The challenge for government agencies when engaging with members of the Deaf community is that there's huge variety of language and literacy levels among the Deaf community. Historically, unfortunately, education has failed many Deaf people. So, as a result, many Deaf people have language deprivation. This means that they haven't grown up with language exposure. and they've acquired a language at a later age. So for many Deaf people their first and strongest language is NZSL and English is like a foreign language that they struggle to understand.
So when I say that there's a huge variety of literacy levels, I want you to imagine say I pick 10 Deaf people at random. Maybe two of them have limited language and rely solely on NZSL to access information. Another three may understand basic English, which means they can understand, but they need NZSL to really fully understand complex information. And there might be another three people who have better English and might not always need NZSL, but prefer to access in NZSL. And then there might be another two people who could access normal everyday English comfortably. So there's a whole spectrum in terms of literacy levels amongst Deaf people.
The New Zealand Sign Language Board recently launched a 10-year New Zealand Sign Language strategy. So from 2026 to 2036, one of those priority areas in the NZSL strategy is the public sector. So, I'd like to support that and
suggest today some practical tips on how to improve digital accessibility for the Deaf community. These tips will help your agency make more progress towards achieving the goals of the NZSL strategy.
The first tip is to ensure all your information is available in plain language. Unfortunately, it's not practical to have everything translated into NZSL. That's impossible. However, it's really important that all public information that your agency produces online is in plain English. remember that for many Deaf people English is like a foreign language. So try and reduce the technical and specialist words that you use and use more well-known everyday high frequency words. If you do that it means almost anyone everyone can access that information and plain language really does benefit everyone accessing information online. I've been thinking about the recent government announcements and the risk of using AI with government information. It's really important that any government information that's put out is put in plain language and then if AI is used, it can create more accessible services. It can create more accessible content. I think we're going to swap interpreter. Thanks.
Okay, so just moving on to my second tip. Oh, here we go. My second tip is to just have a think about providing NZSL translations for very important information. Like I've said before, it isn't possible to translate everything into NZSL, but I do encourage you to sort of think about what information is there and what you think would be important for the public sector. It could be information such as sort of health or life-saving information or maybe frequently asked questions that people want to access your website and find out a little bit more about that. So I encourage you to have a think. So yeah, if your government is doing some project work, then it would be worthwhile contacting the Whaikaha alternative formats team actually. You could also contact Deaf Aotearoa, Blind Citizens New Zealand, People First, and we'll work together with your organisation and have a discussion about what your needs are and we'll support you in that area. If your agency hasn't got any sign language translations on the website as yet, then I encourage you to get in touch and we can make a start. Like we've said before, those small little things can make a big difference to accessibility. I mean, if you're in the private sector, you're also welcome to contact Deaf Aotearoa as well. We're happy to advise and to work with you to find a way forward to make sure that that information is accessible and translated into New Zealand Sign Language. And we've seen sort of over the years we have seen improvements. Information is available in sign language more frequently now.
I'll just move on to my third tip. If you put sign language videos onto your website, sometimes that can be a little bit challenging.
But to let you know, like Deaf people's, their English sometimes is at a lower standard. So, it's sort of worth having a look at your homepage and maybe have a go yourself to see if it's easy to sort of navigate and see if you do have any NZSL videos on your website. Also, if it does take you a long time to find those NZSL videos, then that means it's going to be difficult for everybody else to find those videos and that will not be great in regards to accessibility. If you want to see a good example of a website, have a look at the Get Ready website. Get Ready is a nationwide emergency management organisation (NEMA). And on the website, it's quite easy to use. in the top corner they've got like a symbol there and you'll click that and there'll be a drop-own menu and then there will be accessible videos in sign language. So it's quite visual too. It's a very good visual representation and there'll be sort of things to do with what to do in case of an earthquake or a fire or a flood. So that information is there and it will pop up. Someone will be signing the video. You can peruse that and find a lot more information about what to do if any of those emergencies were to take place.
So that was my three tips that I wanted to mention. So plain language means it's more accessible information for everybody.
Also contacting you know organisations like Whaikaha for alternative formats to get your information translated or thinking about what the priority information that needs to be translated, And also, make sure that those videos once they've been translated are easy to find. And also many government organisations will be using different digital platforms. They'll also be using social media. So it will depend on what the agency prefers to use. But those three tips that I've mentioned can be useful. Plain language, access to important information and just make sure that that information is easy to find. And if that's the case on any digital platform, you will see benefits. And also the Sign Language Strategy as well because NZSL users or sign language users we pay taxes but we also find sometimes that information coming back can be quite tricky to access like rates documents and so forth. So it is quite tricky for Deaf people and we do need to be able to access that information at the end of the day. But I really hope today has empowered you to go forward and take that first little step and make sure that that information is accessible and accessible in sign language and it's all work in progress. But if government information is accessible then Deaf people feel that they're on the same level playing field as hearing people and that's going to benefit them. So now I'll pass back over to Grant. Thank you.
[Grant] Thank you James. As one of the GDDA who spends a long time working with agencies, those three tips are perfect for me to take and check with them and I'm looking forward to that engagement over the next little while. Thank you very much. I'm going to hand over now to Leigh-Ann.
Leigh-Ann Harris is part of the Metlink team here in Wellington or Greater Wellington Regional Council and they've been interacting and working quite closely with different communities to ensure that all of their transport solutions are accessible and I did enjoy the other day because we got a good look at what they're doing with trains which I found particularly exciting. But hey, welcome Leigh-Ann. Good to see you.
[Leigh-Ann] Thank you very much Grant. Let me just get my slide ready to share.
Confirming you're able to see that, Grant?
[Grant] I can. Thanks, Leigh-Ann.
[Leigh-Ann] There we go. Kia ora koutou everyone. Ko Leigh-Ann Harris toku ingoa. Greetings everyone. My name is Leigh-Ann Harris. It's an absolute pleasure to be here today and an honour to be speaking on behalf of my team to share our work with you as an example of how local government can partner with the disability community to make incremental improvements to the accessibility of our services. Today's presentation is about an overarching strategy and examples of how we've woven the voices of the disability community through new and change projects at Metlink. So before we get started, a quick agenda. A little background about Metlink. I'll let you know about our accessibility charter which is a commitment to lift accessibility through co-design with the disability community. And then I'll be sharing some examples of partnership and co-design. The two big examples I have are our on bus announcement system and the design of our new regional Tūhono train fleet.
So Metlink if you use public transport in Wellington you'll be really familiar with it. We operate a public transport network of bus, rail, harbour, ferryy and Te Hunga Whaikaha total mobility services. The network spans from Wellington City up to Otaki in the west and across to Masterton in the east. Our services are delivered under contract by operators. So for instance, we've got four different bus operators, a rail operator and East by West running our harbour ferry service and we are proudly part of Greater Wellington Regional Council. Before I get started on my presentation, some context about the accessibility of public transport in New Zealand. When we consider the accessibility of our services and public transport services more widely in the country, the research doesn't paint a favourable picture. In fact, research over decades tells us that our level of accessible public transport across the country is poor when measured against international best practice. And one of the key recommendations that has come through the research is to make sure that the voices of disabled people are involved in strategic planning and investment decisions about public transport nationally. It's a position that Metlink has wanted to change and we wanted to really be agents of change on this and it really aligns with our goals in terms of our wider organisation as a regional council and that much of the work that we do is about giving people the choice as to how they would like to travel and live independently.
So the significant change came for us in 2021. The need for accessibility improvements were identified in our key strategic business documents. Both Metlink strategic roadmap and the Regional Public Transport Plan. We chose this moment to extend an invitation to the disability community to ask for their support and advice on how to achieve this objective. We asked trusted senior people in the community about how we should go about lifting the accessibility of our network, a large system that has evolved over decades. We gathered together a group of Metlink officers and trusted advisers for a free and frank conversation and their advice to us was to start with a commitment.
So later in 2021, Metlink produced an accessibility charter, our commitment to the disability community to lift the accessibility of our services and we asked our council to ratify the charter. So they committed to a public transport network that is accessible for all with ease and dignity. We didn't just want to make a commitment. We also wanted to make actions part of the charter to ensure that we were doing things and that the charter wasn't just a commitment gathering dust on a shelf. The first action was that we wanted to develop and deliver an accessibility action plan with the disability community that would include a range of actions that were prioritised and time bound and allocated resources to. The second one was to co-design and consult with the disability community especially when we introduce new projects or changes. So it's this second point that my presentation is about today. I would just like to say some context when it comes to a charter. When we introduced the charter, everybody remembered it, knew about it, and pointed to it when they wanted to make changes. But over time, people have asked, "You have a charter, but my bus stop is still inaccessible." And we acknowledge that that is a reality, that parts of our network are accessible while others remain inaccessible. It's simply too challenging for us to lift a whole public transport system in a 5-year frame, especially if we think that we've got 3,500 bus stops and 48 stations across the region. The wisdom and pragmatism offered by our trusted advisers was for us to focus on accessibility improvements for new or change projects and to bring the disability community along for the ride. So, here are two examples of how we have done that. The first is our on bus announcement system. So in 2023, Metlink started rolling out a new on bus announcement system across our bus fleet. If you've taken one of our buses, you may have seen or heard the system playing, but you may not know how it came about. The system is actually a partnership between Metlink and Blind Citizens New Zealand. Blind Citizens advocated for its introduction as a universal design solution to benefit all customers, but their interest of course was in supporting their members with blind low vision to have confidence to use public transport and to travel independently. The onboard system helps people to navigate the bus network by providing both visual and audio information about the next upcoming bus stop in real time. It also tells you about points of interest and transfer points available at the next stop. For consistency and cost effectiveness, announcements are made by a text to speech female voice with a Kiwi accent. Our customers regularly provide feedback on how to sculpt the pronunciation of words in a more pleasing way. It's my pleasure to share a video about the system and its genesis. It stars Thomas Bryan from Blind Citizens who championed its introduction. The video was kindly produced by our partner Somar Digital. Just while I get ready to share, I note that the video has burnt in captions.
[Video] I've been blind since birth. I've always had a little bit of vision, but it's not enough for me to be able to read signs, recognize faces. For me, blind people want to be able to travel, want to be able to be independent. And it's really a challenge to try and get those messages across to people because it is difficult to try and put yourself in someone else's shoes and imagine what it might be like to travel and not seeing where you're going. We've always had a strong relationship with Blind Citizens New Zealand and we work very closely with them to actually understand what the requirement is for the system. We did a little bit of direct testing with community groups of different kind of disabilities and different advocacy groups kind of figuring out what those barriers are, whether real or perceived, to then design a system that would help them feel informed and empowered so that they can travel and use the service. It was very much the voice of disabled people saying, you know, what's going to be helpful, beneficial for them and using public transport and getting information about where to get off the bus. I think one thing we've discovered is that there's not one-size-fits-all. That there's different people, there's different experiences, there's different expectations, different vehicles, different routes, different times, you know, and trying to find how we can manage a system that that works for everyone all the time. That's not a great experience when you get off the bus and you have no idea where you are. To go out to the Hutt Valley or up to the Kāpiti Coast, I have no idea where I am. So these announcements are going to be a gamechanger for many of us in the community. I think probably the most sort of profound thing for me is the realisation about how few people with disabilities can actually access public transport. Finally, we're on a path where we can actually make it for everyone. It will really just make it much easier for people to consider public transport, but also just such a good thing for the community. That's quite a powerful thing.
[Leigh-Ann] Let me just change the screen for you.
All right. The next example, We'd like to talk to you and share our work that we've been doing about the new Tūhono trains. Everybody loves talking about trains. So I hope you enjoy this presentation. A new regional rail service is due to come on in line for the both the Wairarapa and Manawatū lines starting in 2029 and it will be replacing our current services on both the Wairarapa and Manawatū lines and adding extra capacity. So we'll have these trains for decades to come and our genuine desire is to make these trains accessible and work for the communities that they serve. So, a few tasters about how we have been involving our communities in the design of these trains. So, here we go. An image of what the Tūhono train looks like. There's an artist's impression on the right hand side of the screen. The train is currently in the Metlink livery, but that design is going to evolve over time. The train of course is a battery electric train. It's got five carriages. The first carriage, the first and last carriage are high floor and the midcarriages are low floor to enable good accessibility. It's got functional spaces on board, multi-functional spaces on board, sorry, to cater for a range of different commuters with different needs. It's got two toilets, including one accessible toilet, a vending machine, water fountain, and 220 seats. So as we've gone with the design of the train, we have asked the community for their feedback in the design process. We started this out in 2023 when we took the design of the Tūhono train to our Public Transport Advisory Group who are a citizen panel of our customers and also include a group of people with access needs. They provided great feedback on the train. We had large maps of the layout on desks and people were able to have discussions about what they wanted to see and also draw what they'd like on board the train. So in response to that session we had with customers, we have added more flexible spaces for a range of commuters with different needs on board the trains. We've put modern amenities such as charging ports and digital information and most importantly created more equitable access for people with disabilities in the design process. This year we have gone on to more detailed design aspects. So earlier this year, we tested out the spatial allocation of the train to make sure that there's enough room for people who have wheelchairs or mobility aids and travel with bicycles or prams. So on the left hand side there is a mockup of the interior of a train that we created with office furniture, the walls of the office and tape on the floor. It's a seriously lowfidelity mock that was a really great way of testing some of the space available on the train. And our right picture shows some of our customers who regularly use the trains and use mobility aids. One of the mobility aids of course is an electric wheelchair and the other is a scooter and both have very different turning circles. So, it was great to be able to test both of those devices on in what would be the train space. We've gone on to test the accessible toilet and baby changing table facilities. The the design that we were testing is a European design of a toilet capsule that's used in service on many European trains. Um it passed with flying colors when we did some user testing. Basically, user testing was again tape on the floor um and paper on the wall showing um the location of handles, the soap, the hand dryer, and the baby changing table. So, on the left there we have a wheelchair user session. One of the wheelchair users came in with their 3-week old baby who is in the toilet capsule. She was the only one who was able to give us really good and robust advice on the baby changing facilities in that toilet. And on the right hand side we have a customer with a cane who has tested out how the train works for blind low vision commuters. Next steps for Tūhono is we are going to white mockup which is not really a cheap way of testing but a really necessary one when you're spending so much on a train. A white mockup will be available in Petone for our customers with access needs to test and we're quite keen to test the different conflicts between customers in terms of for instance if you're a wheelchair user parked in the priority seating area how would a person who's blind low vision and uses a cane navigate around you. We'll also be looking at choosing our assisted listening solutions for the train, whether we go with an induction loop or choose something modern like Aurecast Bluetooth technology. And of course we have opportunity to co-design some of the station upgrades. So Tūhono testing tips from me the sessions were an absolutely really fun and great experience for everyone to be involved with. Co-design sessions are a way of Metlink showing goodwill and respect to disabled people and we know many of them have had experiences on our network that have been not particularly pleasant. But it's our way to host and show our gratitude for their lived experience and to and to really extend warmth and care and compassion towards them. We offer catering. We give people koha and payment for their time and their advice. And we are always free and frank with them opening dialogue channels and inviting advice and conversation whenever people want that. So just the final word from me, our accessibility charter has really paved the path for us in terms of creating a co-design mandate for everything that we do and making sure that we are able to recognize and honor the lived experience in our communities in terms of the design of our services. Sometimes it doesn't seem like we're doing enough, but when you stand back and look at the incremental steps that we make, we are definitely getting somewhere. and look forward to positive progress over a number of years. I would like to say that co-design is all about relationships and building trust as well and it's an absolute pleasure to undertake this work. Thank you.
[Grant] Thank you Leigh-Ann. As a regular user of that service, it is great to see the co-design at work for all of us and particularly for those with accessibility needs. Now, we had talked about having a third speaker, but there's just a little bit of a change to our programme. So, what we're going to do now is we're going to take that break. We said it would be sometime around 11.
So we're right on schedule for that. If over the break you think of a few questions that you might like to ask our panelists or something that you might want to engage conversation around, please feel free to put those into the Q&A question answer session or the section of the webinar. We do have some questions we're going to work through with the team but we should be back in about 10 minutes. We'll come back online just before and then we'll start again about 10 past 11. So good chance for a break. See you all soon. Ka kite.
[Grant] Kia ora koutou, good to be back with you. So we're going to move on to our panel session now and we have three amazing panelists and I'm going to give them a minute or so just to introduce themselves in detail but we have Jonathan Godfrey from Disabled People's Organisation. We have Dino Zuppa who is the Chief Executive Officer at Accessible Standards Canada and Amy Clements the National Chair of I.Lead and Social Media and Communications Facilitator at Yes Disability. Jonathan, can I hand over to you first?
[Jonathan] Yeah, lovely. Thanks, Grant. Uh my name is Jonathan Godfrey. In my day job, I'm a lecturer at Massey University in Statistics. My livelihood, my ability to carry on in my career is totally and utterly dependent on digital accessibility. As a consumer of other people's work and as a producer of content that I'm in control of. Digital accessibility is probably one of the most important facets of my job and my survival and my thriving in life. So, it's great to be with you all today.
[Grant] Thank you, Jonathan. Come back to you with some questions soon. Dino, over to you. I believe you're in Canada. Welcome.
[Dino] Hello everyone. It's a great honour and privilege to be here all the way from Canada. We're getting ready for our evening in Canada and you guys are just in the morning. So I'm the CEO of Accessibility Standards Canada. We're a standard development organisation in Canada that develops standards and we have a number of digital standards under development. However, I'm neurodivergent and as well I rely on digital technology and other supports to be successful and in my job. So nice to meet everybody. Thank you for the opportunity to be here.
[Grant] Thank you Dino. It's Grant again. Amy across to you. Welcome.
[Amy] Kia ora. My name is Amy. Sign name Amy which is thumbs up from the temple spiraling downwards to represent my curly hair. I am the National Chairperson of I.Lead which is a social justice changemaking movement led by youth for youth and I am also the Social Media and Communications Facilitator for Yes Disability which is a disability resource centre that's goal sorry that's goal is to support youth, disabled youth specifically. Having grown up with a physical disability, it has made me really enthusiastic to be a part of creating a better, more accessible future. I just graduated from my Bachelor of Communications. So, I'm really passionate about using my knowledge
and enthusiasm to advocate for accessible digital media for everyone. Thank you for having me.
[Grant] Thank you, Amy. It's great to have you here. Jonathan, if I can hand over to you with the first question, if that's okay. What small changes can people make this week in their everyday digital work that would make the biggest accessibility difference?
[Jonathan] I think the most important thing about this is that we're looking for incremental change and a small change today can have a a massive impact because small access problems actually turn into big access problems really quickly. When people create a document as part of a team or anything there's a risk that access barriers get included rather unwittingly, because people don't know everything about access and we don't need you to become accessibility experts overnight. But I would say a quick litmus test on the basics is a good start. Use that Microsoft Accessibility Checker. It's not perfect. It's not the be all and end all, but it's a very good start. Basic thing you can do as frequently, for example, as you check the spelling or the grammar of your document. You'll quickly find out if you're using the right sort of styles that will make the process of turning that information into something useful for disabled people, whether you are part of the problem or more hopefully soon to be part of the solution. The process of accessible information is a garbage in garbage out process. And a small change knowing it is knowing what it is that you can do to make small changes to have a massive impact is something that I would invite every participant to consider doing today.
[Grant] Cheers. Jonathan, that's brilliant. Thank you so much. I know we've got two other panelists and I'm sure they have thoughts as well about the small things that we can do now to make those big changes. Amy, what do you see that could make a big difference?
[Amy] As someone who's passionate about digital media production and distribution, my small thing would be to include captions and text transcripts for video and infographic content. So any audio or visual content should be accompanied by captions and screen readable text transcripts. This allows people who struggle to engage with auditory and visual content to access this information. I I do have a second less easy change and that would be to not have CAPTCHA as a way to authenticate that you are a human being.
I was sitting next to my visually impaired friend last week and he was trying to create an account with something and it required him to use CAPTCHA and luckily he has just enough vision to do it but it was very very difficult. So, eliminating CAPTCHA or having alternatives would be an amazing way to go.
[Grant] Thank you, Amy. you know that we're writing all these down as we go to suggestions
for all of us to use in our daily work. Dino, can I come across to you? What what do you think would make a big difference?
[Dino] Great. Thanks, Grant. There's been so many great suggestions, the presentations and the panellists so far. One thing that maybe I could add is ensure that people with disabilities are in leadership positions. So if you're developing something or if you're co-designing or testing that they're in that they're also in leadership positions as well as all throughout the different elements of the project. So I would add that sometimes you know we consult but they don't but people with disabilities are not the leader they're not the lead researcher lead tester or so on. Thanks.
[Grant] Thank you Dino. The next question I'm going to come is across to you Amy. This is great. I'm getting lots of suggestions that I can use in my daily work. So I really appreciate this. But in terms of who can access things, who do you think is best placed to access the latest technologies and who might be left behind and why?
[Amy] Every day I see disabled people benefiting from AI and other digital tools. Unfortunately though these tools have limited access, many disabled people and families of people with disabilities live off a lower income than average and have a higher cost of living due to the cost of disability equipment and treatments. So this means that there is a sizable amount of the population who does not have the capacity to afford what may many of us consider to be basic technology. So I fear that they are the ones being left behind.
[Grant] Thank you Amy. Dino, your take on that? Who do you think might be getting left behind?
[Dino] Thank you. Same question?
[Grant] Yes, please. Yes. Sorry.
[Dino]I would agree. No, no, that's good. That's good. I would agree with with Amy. It's the people with disabilities and especially the people with multiple disabilities and who do not represent that common element or that average in a sense. So if you're looking at it from a digital point of view and you're looking at it from data, if they're represented in the outliers of the data, those are the individuals who are most disadvantaged by new technologies because unfortunately we don't take the time to consult or develop the technology for those individuals or put the warning signs to identify that there could be a challenge here to have some sort of extra human oversight or intervention or something like that. So then unfortunately those are the individuals and yeah and if I would give you my current situation I do things very some things really really well and I do things some things really poorly. So if I'm very easily screened out of positions because I would actually because I don't fit that normal distribution. Thanks.
[Grant] Thanks, Dino. Jonathan, over to you.
[Jonathan] Look, I think I have to say I find myself at both ends of the spectrum and flopping from the joys of generative AI helping life be more efficient and more effective to the pain and suffering end of the spectrum because it takes many of us a longer amount of time, an increased burden to deal with new things, new tools, new ideas. We often have to be the guinea pigs to find out if things are going to work for us or not. That takes time. It takes energy and I suggest it takes more time and energy for many disabled people than we actually have room to fit into our lives. There are people who just do not have the time beyond keeping themselves well, healthy and alive, to invest as heavily as is needed to get the maximum benefit out of the newer and exciting world of AI. So, you know, I think there's two kinds of of us at each end of the spectrum. And if you are thinking about the elite, that's great but we need to think about the people who who don't, who can't even no matter how much they might want to be involved or benefit. So we have an opportunity as the people who can make change who can look to those new tools who can work out how to make those tools work for disabled people. We do have a real opportunity to make it easier for disabled people to consume content generated in this exciting AI-driven world. Look back to what Metlink is saying. You know, the the onboard announcements aren't being generated by the passengers. They're being generated by the system. The system carries the burden of making the access, not the disabled people who need it in order to benefit. Thank you.
[Grant] Thanks, Jonathan. I I'm going to come back to some conversation around AI shortly I'm hoping, and I know from previous discussions you've got some feedback into that space and some ideas. I'm really keen to hear them. But I do want to go to you Dino. We just want to know a little bit about the equity based standards that you've been using in Canada and how you're implementing those and how you're bringing those into the the system and how does something like that help organisations to progress faster.
[Dino] So the equity based standards in Canada, really folks start with having people with disabilities at the table and leading the development of the standards and it's very comparable to what the presenter that discussed the train where you had co-design you had testing and so on. So you're ensuring that what is developed can be implemented but at the same time we are bringing the decision makers at the table very early and showing them. So making them partners not only with people with disabilities but also decision makers and as we roll it out they become because we know that the regulatory process could be long and cumbersome. So we have been using them in policies and procedures which could be updated very quickly and that starts the culture change on the government and then for regulated entities as well as training and so on. So it's really having like the incremental, not just focusing on one element like say regulation and compliance but as Jonathan has said the entire spectrum of approaches so like that we could change the the culture in many different ways.
[Grant] Thanks Dino. It's Grant again and I know my colleague Jason Kiss is going to be on very shortly and I'm sure that he's going to talk a little bit about some of the work we're doing in New Zealand around web standards. So, we might leave that for a little bit, but I do want to come back to the point that Jonathan raised about AI and how it can make a difference in our world and how we can use it really well, but at the same time, we can mess it up a little bit if we're not careful. So, I'd like to ask each of you to think about two opportunities and two risks that go with AI. Not long ones I'm hoping but and then some simple guard rails that we can put in place to protect ourselves and the wider system and world. So Jonathan I know this is a subject kind of close to your heart. I'm going to hand over to you. Thank you.
[Jonathan] Yeah look Gen AI is exciting for those of us who are using it. You know we love it. We thrive on it, it gives us the buzz. But the the people who are really benefiting from Gen AI are well equipped to understand where it doesn't work. And one of the critical problems that Gen AI has is that everything that it offers is built on the data and the world that it can look at out there on that wicked internet thing. And it predetermines its answers based on what it sees already from the past. And the inaccessibility of the past is a problem that Gen AI can visit upon the future if we aren't careful. So sense checking is absolutely critical and sense checking by people who do know where it is failing us as against people who are reaching beyond their capability who can make assumptions. I love what Gen AI can do. I'm a big science fiction fan. I'm binge watching old episodes of Star Trek from the 90s where the interaction between okay able-bodied people with computers is what we are actually able to do today with Gen AI. Have a conversation, declare what we want, generate product, all without the hands touching the keyboard, the mind ruling what we can deliver, making us efficient, making us productive, making us effective, making us a part of society in ways that we couldn't do 10 or 20 years ago. So the guardrails, making sure that you've got the right people doing the sense checking co-design, and testing assumptions. Not just what Gen AI produces but the human that is then responsible for taking that product and putting it into the real world where there are disabled people waiting. It's me for the moment.
[Grant]That's great. Thank you Jonathan. And I think that's lessons for us all, isn't it? Amy, can I come across to you? I'm sure that you're using AI in different levels within your work and we might be it might be good to hear a little bit about that, but also what do you see as the opportunities, those risks and the guardrails?
[Amy] Absolutely. So, I'll start with the risks actually. So, as a younger person, I see every day how my peers are concerned surrounding the ethics and privacy risks of generative AI. Unfortunately, I am in the same boat. I I do use generative AI every once in a while, but I don't use it consistently. However, I also see people within the disability community benefiting from generative AI every day. Whether that be through personal use such as Chat GPT or through platforms using AI to increase accessibility through captioning and text text simplification. I think guardrails are important, especially regarding what Jonathan said about AI being trained by our society's past. So, if AI is going to be introduced into a specific programme, I believe that it should be trained in a way that is informed directly by disabled people. That way you know that the AI is going to be sensitive to where it needs to be and not informed by ableist past views.
[Grant] Lovely. Thanks Amy. I can see this training is quite a theme, isn't it? And and the the grabbing of things from the past. How do we correct those out of some of our generation stuff? Dino, over to you. Opportunities, risks, and guard rails.
[Dino] I'll start with the risks as well. So there's some risks with productivity tracking. So, for example, if AI monitors people's rhythm of working, you know, the flexible schedule sometimes. So there's a risk that as Jonathan and Amy said it looks at historical patterns and they feel, you know, the AI feels that it everybody should work a certain way ,
and sometimes people with disabilities they have different rhythms to work and that's the risk of being misinterpreted. And to add on that, what happens with AI is that it once it provides a projection it assumes that it's right so it could do harm once but then it's cumulative. It makes the same. It actually gets stronger in its bias or its discrimination. So it's that statistical discrimination. Those are some of the risks. It's ongoing. It just doesn't happen once. It goes on and on and on and actually gets stronger and could be even more discriminatory as it goes on. So the opportunities, there's many opportunities whether that's you know simply proofreading, writing, you know, composing, mentoring, learning, so I guess it's the same like, so I see those as really opportunities, so it's really the learning component for me, and the generating of content, more content than I ever could imagined possible. But the risk is there is that it overwhelms you with the burden of going through that content. With the generative AI. Then there's other AI's as well. Thanks.
[Grant] Thank you, Dino. Dino, if I can hold with you for a minute, if that's okay. I've got a question here that the ASC talks about accessibility as a national opportunity. And I'd kind of like to put that to the whole panel, but I might start with you since I think it comes out of some Canadian material. I think we can agree that it's an opportunity, but what does that opportunity look like and how do we create it?
[Dino] Yeah. So for us the opportunity is multi-dimensional. So first like 27% of the population in Canada identifies people as a person with disability, but more when you look at it more broadly, 70% of the population is actually affected by disability when you take in family and friends. And we know and I think it was one of the speakers at the beginning is that we used the phrase accessibility benefits everyone. I think it was the person from the Deaf community said that texting was actually developed by the Deaf community. And that's what we believe that's what the national opportunity is is actually to have the country more inclusive and with the increase of inclusiveness it actually supports economic growth as well. So we've done a study where if Canada would be fully inclusive, it would add, you know, over $300 billion to the economy. So the opportunity is for everyone, not just people with disabilities, and in regards to prosperity.
[Grant] Thank you, Dino. Amy, across to you. It's Grant again. I hold a second. I can see Jonathan's switched his mic off. So Jonathan, I'm guessing you've got something to say on that note.
[Jonathan] Yeah, look, I love it. Being a statistician I love the numbers and outcomes, the percentage, but actually that's today I want to appeal to people's complete and utter selfishness because if you live long enough, you'll be joining my team. In spite of all the medical wonders, the majority of older folks in our country are disabled, so if you can't be interested in disabled people's needs right now. Start thinking about who's going to be disabled in 10 or 20 years time, and assess the probability that you'll be amongst us. And maybe that will inspire people to start thinking better about the future of our country.
[Grant] Nice words. Thank you, Jonathan. As someone who's certainly finding some of those challenges as they get older, I appreciate exactly what you're saying. Now, Amy, can I come across to you? What do you think?
This accessibility as a national opportunity. How how do you think that sits with us? What can we do?
[Amy] I think that Dino and Jonathan explained it perfectly. There's the economical value of accessibility and there's also the future proofing of accessibility. As Jonathan said, a lot of people in the disability community like to say you're only temporarily able-bodied. the chances of you becoming disabled before you die are quite high. So unfortunately accessibility isn't something that a lot of people think about. It's an afterthought. So we have to appeal to their selfishness. A lot of the time, they're not going to do it out of the goodness of their own heart, which is I think a bit upsetting to the disability community. However, we can leverage that and tell them this will benefit you in the future. Integrating accessibility now will benefit you not only when you're old, but it will also save you money in the end. So, why not do it now?
[Grant] Thank you, Amy. That's great. I'm going to hold on to that. Temporarily enabled. I certainly feel that and I think that's a lovely expression. Thank you so much. Look, Thank you, the three of you. I could continue this conversation for a lot longer. I'm really enjoying it and we did catch up I think earlier in the week and it was just great then. So I know there's a lot more that we could talk around this subject, but we're going to move on now to Ginny. Ginny Baddeley has found a little bit of time. She's going to come back and she's just going to talk to us about some of the practical opportunities that we can bring into play both at a local level in our world and at a government level to make changes. Welcome Ginny.
[Ginny] Hey kia ora tātou, can I just check that you can hear me?
[Grant] We can certainly hear you.
[Ginny] Hear you. And oh, I've disappeared from my screen. And so, somebody is going to come and help me find my video. Anyway, there we go. And I'm sorry. So I'm going to do two things. And it's a real privilege to be here today. I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the work that we are doing at Whaikaha as an organisation. And I thought I'd also take the opportunity just to summarize what I heard some of our panelists talking about today, because I found that was a really strong call to action not just about our work, as an organisation but actually the collective responsibility that we all share around accessibility. So one of the things that I heard was that small changes do make a difference. And there were some really practical examples from both the panelists but also from Metlink, and from Deaf Aotearoa, about you know actually the lived experience and bringing that sense of co-design early into any project. But as Dino said, actually making sure that the decision makers hear this lived experience and it's not filtered through a project or through a document. The other thing I really loved about what Dino said and something that Whaikaha is really committed to as an organisation is make disabled leaders visible in all our work. And you know that is something which we are really committed to as an organisation not just for ourselves but also to really increase the employment opportunities for disabled people, not just in entry level roles but actually in leadership positions across the organisation, across the whole system, and we are very lucky to have Paula Tesoriero as our Chief Executive who really embodies disabled leadership. There was a lot about AI and I know that we're going to be hearing from Jason, and for those public servants on the call, you know, there's a real call to action and a challenge for us to think about leveraging technology. But, we were reminded by Jonathan that actually disabled people have benefited from and utilised technology for over a decade, or for decades, in terms of being able to support their accessibility journey. But we need to be reminded that about the digital divide and not make assumptions that digital accessibility is available to everybody. Ethics, privacy and guard rails are really critical in any decisions that we make around AI and the importance of using current content and keeping humans in the loop. The last point is around, you know, accessibility benefits everybody and it really is about increasing inclusion and effectiveness. And one of the things we are really trying hard at Whaikaha to do is to shift the conversation around disability away from it being just a social issue but also to an economic opportunity. And you know, the conversations around being temporarily abled and the fact that we are one moment away from joining Jonathan and others does become a bit of a, I guess, a burning platform for us all to think about accessibility.
I think finally before I talk a little bit about Whaikaha work that we're doing from an accessibility perspective, is we have learned this as an organisation, is you know, whilst this conversation is about technology and digital design and accessibility, it's really about culture and attitudes, and it's about how each of us think about and approach accessibility in the work that we do and in the lives that we lead. So at Whaikaha around 60% of our staff identify as having a disability. So it is a call for action for us every day. Accessibility for us starts early. So we think about it as part of recruitment, as part of job ads and as part of our application process. And I want to make one small plug. Please check out 1in6.nz. That's either numbers or words. 1in6.nz. One in six people identify as having a disability in New Zealand. And we have created some really practical resources for individuals also for organisations to understand about how they can remove barriers during a recruitment process for disabled people. There are really small adjustments that we can make which stop people being shut out.
The other thing that we try and do is to be really proactive and not reactive in interviews. We don't wait for people to ask for accessibility. We have clear accessibility needs asked early. We confirm any accessibility arrangements in advance and we provide clear information so that people can prepare. So predictability becomes an accessibility feature when people know what to expect. Actually, they're able to better show their strengths. And accessibility doesn't stop when somebody starts to work for us. We recognise that people's needs change over time and sometimes these only become clear once people start in a role. So accessibility isn't treated as a one-off setup. It needs to be open, flexible, and responsive. And our job is not to get it perfect on day one. Our job is to keep asking and to keep the door open and to keep improving because also one size does not fit all. Different people need different tools. They need different settings and they need different environments to do their best work. This is not about disability. This is very much about human preference. But for disability, this might mean voice-controlled technology. It might be about working in a low light environment. It might be about large text or it might be about different workplace setups. Accessibility is not about forcing everybody into the same system. It's about flexibility. It's about choice. And it's about making sure that our systems work for real people. So, some of some of the most effective changes can be the simplest. Sending out documents before a meeting, speaking clearly, taking turns, reducing the side chat in our Teams and Zoom calls, making introductions properly can have a big impact. So these behaviours change the way that we that we operate in the workplace. And finally, you know, culture really matters. I think we heard that from the panelists. Accessibility improves when people feel comfortable to ask, when they feel heard, and when testing happens and adjustments are made. Most of the barriers are not technical problems. They are process problems. And when we move accessibility earlier and make it part of our normal practice, we remove barriers before they even appear. So, one message I'll leave you with today is accessibility starts with the choices that we make every day. Ask, don't listen. Sorry. Ask, don't assume. Listen, don't defend. And make small practical changes early because that's how accessibility actually becomes a system, a workplace, and a service. Thank you.
[Grant] Ginny, that's great. Thank you so much. It's very much that different people need different things, isn't it? And unless you engage with them and unless you ask those questions, you're not going to know. So, thank you. I'm going to hand over now to my colleague Jason Kiss. Now Jason is the Web Standards Consultant for the Government Digital Delivery Agency and he's going to talk us through the GDDA, so that's the Government Digital Delivery Agency's roadmap. Welcome Jason, good to see you.
[Jason] Thanks Grant. Kia ora koutou. So right I am a Web Standards Consultant. Myself and Katherine Barcham my colleague, we together make up the Government Chief Digital Officer's Web Standards Team. And I'm just going to take a few minutes now to update you on several of the projects we have on. The first and probably the biggest is the new Digital Accessibility Standard that we are proposing. This is a new standard to replace the current Web Accessibility Standard. The the current standard applies only to websites. And of course we know uh the technology has moved on since then. um the current Web Accessibility Standard doesn't touch mobile applications or non-web documents or or other software and hardware. And so we want the the new Digital Accessibility Standard to address those gaps. Basically the the new standard will propose that over a 5-year period eventually all ICT, all information communication and technology, will become accessible. So, all software, all hardware over a 5-year period. Of course, we want to start immediately with websites and mobile applications, but also non-web documents like emails, word documents, PDFs. We want all of that to be accessible. We've been working really closely with Whaikaha and the disability community to inform the draft of the standard and we'll be releasing that draft soon for consultation. Of course, a standard is one thing. But agencies will need support to meet that standard. So, we've identified a wide range of different activities that we can do to help agencies meet the new standard. And these include things from targeted training, especially for leaders around disability and accessibility, to more practical things like IT procurement contracts that have accessibility baked in with consequences for non-compliance. Last year in 2025 we did a large research piece on accessible digital government services for New Zealand. This is published on digital.govt.nz, but it included 25 recommendations from the disability community and others on how to improve accessibility. And we've taken those 25 recommendations to inform this programme of support, these activities that we will implement to help agencies meet the standard. But those recommendations are also getting built in to the Digital Accessibility Standard where possible. That standard I mentioned is going out for consultation. That's going to happen sometime around July. We're getting all the materials ready for that. Information on that consultation will be published to digital.govt.nz. So keep an eye on out on that website late June, early July for more details on exactly when that consultation is happening. After the consultation we'll be holding additional workshops, particularly with government agencies and suppliers but again with the disability community where necessary, to understand the impact of the proposed changes and how we can help agencies in the system meet that.
Another major project that we have is an ongoing project. Myles mentioned it at the start and that's CWAC, the Centralised Web Accessibility Checker CWAC. As Myles mentioned, CWAC scans websites for automatically detectable accessibility issues. So, it's not a a substitute for manual testing, which is always required. But at the click of a button, we can get all of this information about websites and those automatically detectable accessibility errors. This gives us system level insights and helps agencies address those errors and improve their websites. So every three months we are scanning about 500 publicly facing government websites and we're publishing the results from those scans to data.govt.nz as open data sets and so anybody can see those results. We're also as Myles mentioned publishing the results or CWAC scores to leaderboards on digital.govt.nz and they're having the intended effect. We're seeing in the last three months quite significant reductions in the number of automatically detectable errors on government websites, and in some cases, I think there there are a good five agencies or so that went down. They dropped
from most of their web pages having accessibility errors to hardly any of their web pages having automatically detectable errors. So that is great progress step by step. Right? Currently CWAC is difficult for agencies to run on their own. So something else we're doing and this is really exciting. We're going to be providing something that we're calling CWAC as a service. This will be online a version of CWAC, a web-based version of CWAC that government agencies will be able to log into themselves and run CWAC scans of their own websites when they want, how they want to do that. So, that's expected later on in the year and we're really looking forward to that.
Finally, I just want to mention the Digital Accessibility Community of Practice that Katherine and I run. This is an open forum for practitioners in the public and private sectors. It meets on Microsoft Teams, once a month, and the first hour is usually presentations and then the second hour is open discussion and attendance is just great. It's really quite a dynamic and growing community. We can safely call it a community. It's just come from the ground up really. We're getting about 80 people on average from about 30 to 40 different organisations attending every session. So that's just a really good sign of how practitioners across the public and private sectors want to get us moving on accessibility. If you want to join that, email web.standards@gdda.govt.nz and we'll happily add you to the group. So that's the update from the Web Standards team. Ngā mihi nui, ki a koutou.
Back to you Grant.
[Grant] Thank you Jason, and I'm sure we will get that web address out through some of the papers that follow after this. So thank you so much. Now I'm going to hand back to Shu Run. Shu Run's just going to talk us very quickly through some of the Whaikaha activity and what you can expect next from that space. Thank you Shu Run.
[Shu Run] Kia ora Grant.
Kia ora ano, Shu Run speaking. Thank you Jason for talking us through the upcoming work that is being led by the Government Digital Delivery Agency. Whaikaha is pleased to collaborate closely with your team to support this work. On the Whaikaha roadmap we are leading several different streams of work as well. So this is an update. We are refreshing the Accessibility Charter with the DPO coalition. The original Accessibility Charter was led by the DPO Coalition, Ministry of Social Development, that's MSD and the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. So we are looking to strengthen the existing charter in context of the changing technology landscape and work with all of government on our ongoing commitment to accessibility for disabled people. We are also working on strengthening our all of government alternate format service which is a service where Whaikaha works with three disabled people's organisations to provide advice to government agencies on how to create accessible information which is then produced in audio, Braille, Easy Read, large print and New Zealand Sign Language. We are also exploring how we could use AI in making documents born accessible as well as implementing standards to guide agencies on how to create good quality alternate formats and plain language documents. Now, if you're interested in learning more about this, do come along to the monthly accessible information training that is run jointly by Whaikaha as well as our colleagues from the Government Digital Delivery Agency, the Association of Blind Citizens New Zealand, Deaf Aotearoa, and People First New Zealand. So, don't worry about remembering all of this now because we will be sending out a post-event email that will include all of the information as well as additional resources for you. So, that's it from me. Thank you and over to you Grant to close our event.
[Grant] Thank you Shu Run. But as Shu Run just said, it is coming to a close. We've had a great forum this morning. It's been brilliant to have you all here. This has been brought together by so much work from so many people and we have really really appreciated their work and your willingness to come and listen and to be part of this. You know, Paula and Myles opening for us, our presenters James and Leigh-Ann and our panelists Jonathan, Dino, and Amy have done a great job at talking us through the subject. And Ginny and Jason talking to us a little bit about the government position and Shu Run bringing it all together.
But Shu Run, I don't know whether you know this, but Shu Run and Nicole have done an amazing job in the background making this all work. There were a couple of technical glitches as they always are, and we've been able to fix and balance those. So, I appreciate all the effort from everyone involved. Thank you so much. I'm just going to close this with a karakia.
Kia whakairia te tapu
Kia wātea ai te ara
Kia turuki whakataha ai
Kia turuki whakataha ai
Haumi e! Hui e! Tāiki e!
Kia ora koutou.
Thank you for joining us. You all have a great day.
Ka kite ano!
Speakers and panellists
People from across government and the disability community took part, including:
- Paula Tesoriero MNZM PLY, Chief Executive, Whaikaha
- Myles Ward, Deputy Secretary, Government Digital Delivery Agency and Deputy Government Chief Digital Officer
- James Anderson-Pole, Manager iSign and Translation, Deaf Aotearoa
- Leigh-Ann Harris, Community Engagement Advisor and Accessibility Lead, Metlink, Greater Wellington Regional Council
- Dr Jonathan Godfrey ONZM, President, Blind Citizens NZ
- Dino Zuppa, Chief Executive Officer, Accessibility Standards Canada
- Amy Clements, National Chair, I.Lead
- Ginny Baddeley, Deputy Chief Executive, Whaikaha.
Key points
- Accessibility is a shared responsibility across government.
- Small, practical changes can make a meaningful difference.
- Good digital services are designed with disabled people, not for disabled people.
- Accessibility benefits everyone and builds trust in government services.
Forum highlights
- Deaf Aotearoa showed how plain language and visible NZSL content helps Deaf people access information.
- Metlink shared how working with disabled people leads to better transport services and accessible information for everyone.
- Panel speakers showed that simple actions like using accessibility checkers and adding captions can improve access.
Questions from the forum
We could not answer every question on the day. This section covers key topics.
Ensuring AI works for disabled people
Whaikaha is working with the Government Digital Delivery Agency on the AI Assurance Model. This recognises that AI can create risks for disabled people. These risks will be managed through engagement and co-design with disabled people.
Supporting people who cannot use digital tools
Government will continue to offer services in different ways, not just online. People can choose how they access services.
Encouraging accessibility in everyday work
Lead by example. When people experience accessibility in practice, they understand how it works and why it matters. It builds trust and improves outcomes. Leadership from Whaikaha and the Government Digital Delivery Agency will help make accessibility part of everyday service delivery.
What you can do next
- Make one practical change in your work.
- Include accessibility in everyday decisions.
- Work with disabled people early and throughout your work.
We thank everyone who took part in the forum. If you have any questions or feedback, email accessibility@whaikaha.govt.nz
We hope you can join us for Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2027.
Related links
- Global Accessibility Awareness Day external URL
- Blind Citizens NZ – contact page external URL
- Deaf Aotearoa external URL
- I.Lead – contact page external URL
- Metlink – online feedback page external URL
- Accessibility Standards Canada – Centre of Expertise external URL