Web Standards Self-Assessment

Objectives

Directions and Priorities for Government ICT requires us to: “Improve the management and content of government’s web presence”.

We have a responsibility to ensure that we make it easy and efficient for all people to access our services. In 2003, the Government Web Standards were established. They outline best practice, enabling websites to be accessible to all people, including those with disabilities, slow Internet connections or who are using mobile devices.

To make it easier for government agencies to see how they are performing against best practice, and hence how accessible their sites are, Internal Affairs has developed a self-assessment tool, which agencies are encouraged to use. Your commitment to the assessment is very much appreciated.

The objectives for the self-assessment are to:

  • capture a snapshot of the level of conformance with the New Zealand Government Web Standards (NZGWS) 2.0;
  • enable the ongoing evaluation of websites with a minimum of overhead;
  • contribute to an inventory of government agency websites;
  • help raise agencies' awareness of the NZGWS, and provide guidance on how to assess conformance.

Administrators and Assessors

Each agency will nominate an Agency Administrator (AA) for the website self-assessments. Each AA will be responsible for managing their agency's website assessment(s) and will serve as liaison between their agency and the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA). Please note that the AA is also responsible for assigning Assessors who will conduct the assessments for the agency.

The Self-Assessment Tool

The Web Standards Self-Assessment Tool (WSSAT) can be accessed by users online through their browser. Using the tool, AAs will be able to delegate WSSAT user rights to Assessors who are auditing websites on behalf of the agency. 

The tool itself comprises 65 separate questions that are broken down into eight sections that reflect the NZGWS. Assessors are required to answer either a “yes” or “no” for each question. If a question is answered “no”, then an explanation is mandatory. This explanation may outline remedial measures or provide reasons a page or site does not conform with the relevant Standard.

AAs will be able to copy separate instances of website assessments. That is, when the first website is assessed, the results can be copied into a new assessment. The AA can then edit the results of the new assessment to reflect the new website, rather than starting from scratch.

AAs will also be able to copy instances of website assessments from one year into the next. For example, the results of an assessment for “Agency A” for the 2011 period can be copied to the 2012 period. The assessor can then update the 2012 website assessment to reflect changes to the website over the past 12 months.

View the Web Standards Self-Assessment Tool User Guide

Selecting Which Sites to Assess

To get the most out of this assessment, we recommend the following:

Prioritise

Your corporate site is the most important site to test. Following that, sites should be prioritised by criteria important to your agency: sites supporting important campaigns, heavily-trafficked sites, and sites with special audience needs are examples of sites that may be more highly prioritised. Sites that are scheduled to be decommissioned or replaced within the next 12-month period should be given low priority. Agency admins and web teams are best placed to decide priorities.

Avoid duplication

If your agency maintains a number of sites, you may find ways to streamline your assessments. For example, mini- or sub-sites on the same platform and with the same HTML codebase should usually have identical assessment results for those common or template-level components that they share, leaving only their unique content and styles to be tested. The Department of Internal Affairs has a relatively complex website domain and we are happy to share our approach to this scenario with other agencies.

Test as many sites as you can

It is up to each agency to decide which of its sites it will assess, but it is recommended that agencies assess as many sites as they can within the time and resources they have available. The self-assessment tool will remain open after each reporting period's cut-off. Lower-priority sites not assessed within a particular reporting period can be included in the next 12-month reporting period.

Selecting Which Pages to Assess

Note: The aim of the self-assessments is to test a sample of pages that offer a fair approximation of the kinds of content on the site. It is appreciated that agencies cannot survey every page of a website, but expected that reasonable attempts will be made to survey the different kinds of content on the site. Answering a WSSAT question indicates your assessment of the site's conformance to that standard across a sample of its pages.

Corporate sites

Select 10 to 20 pages for testing. This should generally include the homepage, the "About this Site" page, and a sample of pages containing

  • publications, media releases, news,
  • online forms,
  • scripted (e.g., JavaScript) content or behaviour
  • multimedia,and
  • downloadable non-HTML documents.

Home pages usually need to be individually tested. For sites using a common template, a particular assessment for one page (e.g., related to keyboard navigation or colour contrast) may be applicable to all selected pages, but make sure to also test different colour combinations if any. If possible, maintain a record of the pages you tested.

High-priority sites

Depending on the size of the site, it may be appropriate to select 6 to 10 pages for testing. Test the homepage and a sample of pages that provide

  • information about the site, including ownership, contact details, and the site's purpose,
  • important content,
  • publications, media releases, news,
  • online forms,
  • multimedia,and
  • downloadable non-HTML documents.

Smaller sites and campaign sites may only require that you test 4 or 5 pages.

Low priority sites

Check with your Agency Administrator. Generally the same recommendations that apply to higher priority sites also apply in this instance.

Important Dates

  • WSSAT is available to government agencies from 20 July 2011.
  • The reporting period for NZGWS 2011 assessment ends close of business Friday, September 9, 2011.

AAs and assessors will be able to continue to use WSSAT after the 2011 reporting period closes, but all data entered will be recorded for the year 2012.

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