Agency leaderboard — CWAC
Participating government agencies ranked by their Centralised Web Accessibility Checker (CWAC) scores.
CWAC monitoring programme
At the end of every quarter, starting , the Government Chief Digital Officer (GCDO) is using CWAC to scan publicly facing government websites for accessibility issues.
CWAC scores — lower is better
CWAC counts the accessibility errors it finds on web pages. Each accessibility error is a failure of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, and a potential barrier to a disabled person. As such, low CWAC scores are better.
WCAG 2.2 — World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
By combining the scores for all of an agency’s websites, we can get a score for the agency. Refer to the ‘Agency leaderboard’ table below for the latest CWAC scores for agencies taking part in the CWAC monitoring programme.
A score of 0 is the best score, as it means there were no errors detected on any of the agency’s web pages that CWAC tested. A score of 100 means there was at least 1 accessibility error found on every page tested.
What the scores represent
Automated accessibility testing tools like CWAC can only find some WCAG failures. This means CWAC scores are not accessibility or WCAG conformance scores. Manual testing is still required to properly assess accessibility.
CWAC scores show how well agencies are using automated accessibility testing on their websites.
A digitally mature agency that regularly uses automated testing and fixes issues as they happen can expect a low CWAC score. An agency that does not use automated testing regularly to find and fix issues early can expect a high CWAC score.
For more information, read the blog post, CWAC monitoring programme: collecting and using the data responsibly.
How the scores are calculated
Each agency’s score is based on the axe-core results for the web pages that were tested.
The axe-core test identifies failures to meet the WCAG 2.2, which is the basis of the NZ Government Web Accessibility Standard.
Web Accessibility Standard 1.2
The raw data behind these scores can be found in the “axe_core_audit.csv” files in the quarterly reports published on Data.govt.nz.
CWAC monitoring programme — Data.govt.nz
The formula for the CWAC score follows a strict binary method when counting web pages with accessibility failures. If a web page has just 1 failure, the page is counted as failed.
The CWAC score formula is:
- Multiply the number of pages with an axe-core failure by the total number of viewport tests, then subtract the number of pages that passed in only 1 viewport.
- Multiply the total number of pages scanned by the total number of viewport tests.
- Divide the value from step 1 by the value from step 2.
- Multiply by 100 for a more readable score.
Questions or feedback
Email web.standards@dia.govt.nz if you:
- have questions about CWAC or the Web Accessibility Standard
- need advice on how to move your agency up the leaderboard
- want to give us feedback about these pages.
Agency leaderboard
In the table below:
- The Change column shows the difference from the previous scan on 29 September 2025.
- N/A means no prior score for comparison.
| Agency | Score | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Aroturuki Tamariki | 0 | -9 |
| Family Violence and Sexual Violence Executive Board | 0 | 0 |
| National Emergency Management Agency | 1 | -1 |
| New Zealand Security Intelligence Service | 1 | -40 |
| Whaikaha | 3 | +1 |
| Charter School Agency | 4 | +4 |
| Ministry of Health | 4 | -7 |
| Natural Hazards Commission | 4 | N/A |
| Ministry of Defence | 7 | -22 |
| Ministry for Culture and Heritage | 10 | -19 |
| Serious Fraud Office | 17 | +8 |
| Ministry of Regulation | 22 | +4 |
| Ministry of Justice | 24 | -42 |
| Inland Revenue Department | 27 | -9 |
| Government Communications Security Bureau | 29 | 0 |
| Parliamentary Counsel Office | 35 | +5 |
| Ministry of Housing and Urban Development | 39 | -13 |
| Ministry of Social Development | 41 | -1 |
| Oranga Tamariki | 41 | 0 |
| New Zealand Police | 44 | -45 |
| Public Service Commission | 49 | +5 |
| Social Investment Agency | 50 | 0 |
| Te Puni Kōkiri | 50 | -9 |
| Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment | 53 | -2 |
| Education Review Office | 55 | +5 |
| Ministry for Primary Industries | 58 | -13 |
| Ministry for the Environment | 60 | -6 |
| Department of Internal Affairs | 64 | -4 |
| Land Information New Zealand | 65 | -4 |
| Department of Corrections | 71 | +4 |
| Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade | 71 | +2 |
| Ministry of Education | 74 | +2 |
| The Treasury | 74 | -2 |
| Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet | 75 | +1 |
| Health New Zealand | 75 | +6 |
| Te Tari Whakatau | 80 | -19 |
| Department of Conservation | 82 | -3 |
| New Zealand Defence Force | 82 | +1 |
| Ministry for Ethnic Communities | 99 | 0 |
| Cancer Control Agency | 100 | 0 |
| Crown Law Office | 100 | 0 |
| Financial Markets Authority | 100 | 0 |
| Ministry for Pacific Peoples | 100 | 0 |
| Ministry for Women | 100 | 0 |
| Ministry of Transport | 100 | +3 |
| New Zealand Customs Service | 100 | 0 |
| Statistics New Zealand | 100 | +2 |
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