NT and NSW governments formally adopt WCAG 2.0

Error message

Deprecated function: Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is deprecated in include_once() (line 14 of /home/mediacc/public_html/themes/engines/phptemplate/phptemplate.engine).
Monday, 5 March 2012 16:24pm

The New South Wales and Northern Territory governments have joined other states and territories by publicly endorsing the latest international web accessibility standard. This commitment will help ensure that government websites are useable for everyone, regardless of disability. 

The WCAG 2.0, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, is a list of guidelines which indicate how websites can be made accessible to various degrees.

In the last week, the NSW Government accessibility statement and the NT Government accessibility statement have been updated in line with the Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy (NTS) published by the Federal Government in June 2010. As a result, NSW and NT government websites will meet WCAG 2.0 A by the end of 2012 and WCAG 2.0 AA by the end of 2014.

Since the release of the NTS, State and Territory governments have gradually endorsed WCAG 2.0 and set their level of compliance and timelines for implementation. South Australia’s government is the only one which has not committed to making its websites WCAG 2.0 compliant.

The national move towards WCAG 2.0 started in November 2009 when the council of Commonwealth, State, and Territory communications ministers endorsed the standard in an Online and Communications Council communiqué. Building on this agreement, the Federal Government released the NTS which sets the path for all government websites to reach WCAG 2.0 A by the end of 2012 and Federal Government websites to meet WCAG 2.0 AA by 2014.

New South Wales and the Northern Territory governments have joined Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory in committing to making their websites comply with WCAG 2.0 A. Five of these states have also mandated WCAG 2.0 AA compliance, with the remaining two recommending this level.

For more information, refer to our summary of Australian State and Territory adoption of WCAG 2.0.


Top of page