Built to be used by everyoneWātea ki te katoa

The standard we aim for

This site is designed and tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 (opens in a new tab) at Level AA, which is the level the New Zealand Government Web Accessibility Standard asks of public sector websites. Every page is checked automatically for accessibility failures, colour contrast, keyboard operation, touch target size and reduced-motion behaviour before it is released, at four screen widths from a phone to a large desktop.

What that means in practice

• Body text is set at 17px rather than the usual 16, because most of the people who use this site are over 50.
• Every page works from the keyboard alone, with a visible focus ring and a skip link to the main content.
• Colour contrast meets AA on every text and control colour we use — the palette is tested automatically, and two colours in it exist specifically because the obvious choice failed.
• Buttons, links and form controls are at least 44 by 44 pixels, so they can be hit with a thumb.
• Every photograph carries a real description, and decorative images are hidden from screen readers rather than announced as blanks.
• Nothing moves if your device is set to reduce motion, and nothing auto-plays.
• Pages reflow to a phone screen without sideways scrolling, and work at 200% zoom.
• Forms label every field, describe what they need, and announce errors where they happen rather than only at the top.

What we know is not right yet

• Some photographs carried over from our old website have descriptions we wrote ourselves rather than ones the photographer supplied. If one of them is unhelpful, tell us and we will fix that image.
• Our older recipe booklets are PDFs scanned from print. They are not screen-reader friendly, and we are working through them — ring us and we will read one to you or send the recipe as text.
• Links on our Learn more page go to other organisations' websites. We check that they are reputable, but we cannot vouch for how accessible they are.

Getting to a course

Accessibility does not stop at the website. Tell us on your booking — or ring us beforehand — if you need a room you can get a wheelchair into, a seat near the front, large-print handouts, a support person with you, or an interpreter, and we will sort it out. Our venue notes on each session say what the room is like, and if the building will not work for you we will find another one.