As we head into autumn proper, this year looks like it is shaping up to be a busy one in the accessibility world. Dare I say it - there is even a cautious air of optimism of possible positive change coming.

We are delighted to be playing our part in the change, supporting our clients with reviews, providing training and research, providing feedback to partners and helping raise awareness and the level of digital accessibility across Aotearoa.

We are looking forward to engaging with business, government and people with access needs over the coming year. Reach out anytime, we love to chat about how we can help.

As always, ngā mihi nui (thank you so much) for being part of our community and for helping us build a more accessible Aotearoa.

From Chandra and the team

Free Community Digital Accessibility Series 

Last year, we asked community organisations across Aotearoa to tell us what support they needed to make their websites, social media, and digital documents more accessible. We had a fantastic response, and your feedback made it clear that many organisations want practical, simple training that works for tight budgets and limited technical capacity. 

As a result, and with some funding support from InternetNZ, we are thrilled to offer a series of free, practical accessibility training workshops around Aotearoa and online. The training is open to all not-for-profit, community, charity, church and iwi groups. 

The training sessions run over two mornings, with a total of four 90-minute sessions covering:

1. accessible websites and social media
2. simple accessibility changes
3. documents
4. multimedia content. 

Each session includes hands on activities, expert facilitators, and take home checklists to help you make your digital content more accessible for everyone.  

Tickets are available NOW on Humanitix for each of the locations:

• Christchuch - 22 & 23 April
• Wellington - 4 & 5 May
• Taupo - 6 & 7 May
• Auckland 19 & 20 May
• Online - 2 & 3 June

This series of workshops wouldn’t be possible without funding support from InternetNZ. If you want to learn more in the meantime, or need support with digital accessibility, Access Advisors is here to help. 

Accessibility News

BLVNZ release report

A recently released report - Shining a Light on Blindness - shares the most detailed picture yet of what life is like for people who are blind, deafblind, or have low vision in Aotearoa New Zealand. For the first time, Blind Low Vision NZ used population‑level data from different government data sets to compare life outcomes with the general public.

The findings show clear and ongoing inequities. People with severe vision loss are less likely to be employed, earn lower incomes, and are more likely to live in emergency housing. They experience poorer health outcomes, higher hospitalisation rates, and a shorter life expectancy. Education and home ownership rates are also significantly lower.

These gaps are not caused by vision loss alone. They reflect long‑standing barriers in health, education, employment, and public systems that are not designed to be accessible. This research provides strong evidence to support better policy, smarter services, and more inclusive decision‑making.

It is a call to create a more accessible Aotearoa, so people with vision loss are supported to fully participate in everyday life.

We want to mihi our friends at Blind Low Vision New Zealand for this incredible mahi, and acknowledge the kaupapa they continue to lead – the same kaupapa Access Advisors came from.

Access Matters Aotearoa – Accessible Futures Summit

Access Matters Aotearoa has increased awareness of access needs across different areas of life in Aotearoa for many years, most recently with their Kōrero for Change series. They are now presenting the Accessible Futures Summit bringing together disabled leaders, researchers, thinkers and government officials.

The Summit will address the cost of excluding disabled people, whānau and carers by connecting the disability sector, research organisations, and government.

The aim is to build a community of accessibility champions; each of whom identifies 1-2 concrete actions they can take to help ‘fast-track’ accessibility in the next year. This Summit is a working event, designed for action-oriented dialogue, facilitation and outcomes - not speeches.

Accessible Futures is an in-person version of Access Matters’ flagship Kōrero for Change series, bringing the thinkers, creators, doers and deciders to Wellington. At the Summit, Access Matters will also launch the Kōrero for Change Insights and Recommendations, which specifies actions to accelerate progress on accessibility.

Dr Chandra Harrison will be attending, so come say hi if you are also there.

Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard

The Ministry of Health is currently reviewing the Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard. This standard sets the rules for how health and disability services must work across Aotearoa.

The current standard talks about people’s rights and good communication, but it does not yet set clear, testable expectations for digital accessibility. Getting this right will improve equity and everyday usability for tāngata whaikaha and their whānau.

From our perspective, digital channels (websites, portals, telehealth, apps, e‑forms, patient communications, e‑learning, kiosks) are core to health service delivery. We believe that clearer requirements for digital accessibility are needed. As a result we have made a submission to the review which you can read on our website.

Submissions closed this week so we'll be interested to see if the Ministry will run a deeper review after this round.

Digitising Government Programme

Last week, Chandra attended a Government Chief Digital Officer (GCDO) Supplier Town Hall in Wellington to learn more about the Digitising Government Programme (DGP). The programme aims to create a more joined-up approach to government digital investment, procurement and delivery, with the goal of reducing costs and improving digital services for New Zealanders.

The session explained the government's move towards a shared digital system and a Digital Target State where services are simpler, more connected, secure, and designed around people, not agencies. In practice, people should not need to understand how government works to use services online.

This matters for digital accessibility in Aotearoa New Zealand. Building shared services creates a real opportunity to design accessibility in from the start. However, accessibility will only improve if it is clearly required, measured and enforced. If done well, this approach could significantly reduce digital exclusion. We are excited about the possibilities.

One in Six Website Launched

As part of the Disability Strategy, Whaikaha and the New Zealand Disability Employers Network (NZDEN) launched the One in Six Website to help employers understand how to employ people with access needs. The website provides employment resources hub for HR teams, hiring managers, recruitment professionals, people leaders and business owners.

One in Six is designed as a starting point, helping SMEs and larger employers understand what disability employment looks like and giving them the confidence to get started. The site provides practical advice and downloadable top-tip guides on inclusive recruitment.

The website was a partnership, combining the policy expertise of Whaikaha and NZDEN's employer relationships, to produce a resource to help New Zealand employers open the door to more disabled employees.

Access Advisors are thrilled to have played our part by supporting the delivery team with their digital accessibility.

Upcoming Events

• 25 March 2026 - Access Matters Aotearoa - Accessible Futures Summit: Why accessibility can't wait.
• 26 March 2026 - Digital Accessibility Community of Practice - Chandra will be discussing mentoring some University of Wellington Masters students.
• 31 March 2026 - Executive Women in Tech Event - Chandra will be discussing AI
• 21/22 April 2026 - Community Accessibility Training in Christchurch
• 4/5 May 2026 - Community Accessibility Training in Wellington
• 6/7 May 2026 - Community Accessibility Training in Taupo
• 19/20 May 2026 - Community Accessibility Training in Auckland
• May 2026 - Government Digital Accessibility Forum - Whaikaha will host the event with details to come
• 21 May 2026 - Global Accessibility Awareness Day - save the date for something exciting
• 2/3 June 2026 - Community Accessibility Training Online

Blog Posts

Alongside loads of other new content, we have a new series of blogs on typography on our website

• Font type isn't the only access issue
• Accessible macrons
• Accessible font type.

Ross's Top Tip

display: none – use with care

The CSS rule display: none hides content from everyone, including screen reader users. It removes elements from both the page and the accessibility tree. If you use it on important text like link labels, button names, or form instructions, that information is lost to people using assistive technology. Links can end up with no name, controls can stop making sense, and parts of the page can seem to disappear.

Example: In this code, the icons are visible, but the text labels are hidden using display: none:
HTML

<a href="https://twitter.com">
<svg aria-hidden="true"></svg>
<span class="d-none">Join us on Twitter</span>
</a>

Because the text is hidden with display: none, screen readers can’t access it. The link has no accessible name.

So, Ross's top tip is

Only use display: none when content truly should be hidden from all users. Don’t use it for text that provides meaning or context. 

Recently, we tried out the latest AI caricature trend, just for a bit of fun.

We found out pretty quickly that even if you have a big digital footprint, AI still struggles to get people right without some human guidance. Different tools gave different results, and some of the outcomes were... surprising.

This is why human input, lived experience, and good accessibility practice still matter. AI can support us, but it can’t replace thoughtful, people‑centred design.

Explore all of our future and past News & Events. Contact us if you'd like us to speak at your event, or would like us to run a webinar.

Thank you for being part of our journey. Let’s keep working together to create a more accessible Aotearoa for everyone.

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