Website scores — CWAC
An A–Z list of participating government agencies, showing the Centralised Web Accessibility Checker (CWAC) scores for each of their websites.
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)
Refer to the ‘Website scores by agency’ table below for the latest CWAC scores for the websites tested as part of 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.
A website’s CWAC score shows how well automated accessibility testing tools were used in its design and development.
A digitally mature agency that regularly uses automated testing and fixes issues as they happen can expect low website CWAC scores. An agency that does not use automated testing regularly to find and fix issues early can expect high website CWAC scores.
For more, read the blog post, CWAC monitoring programme: collecting and using the data responsibly.
How the scores are calculated
Each website’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@gdda.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.
Website scores by agency
For each agency listed below, find the latest CWAC scores for its publicly facing websites.
Website scores are based on the 30 March 2026 scan.
The Change column shows the difference from the previous scan on 17 December .
N/A means no prior score for comparison.
Not scanned means CWAC was unable to scan the site.
Utility links and page information
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