Digital Accessibility Community of Practice

Join the Digital Accessibility Community of Practice (DACoP) to hear presentations from people working in accessibility. Bring your questions to receive advice and guidance in a supportive, informal group setting.

The DACoP replaces the Web Standards Clinics. If you used to attend the clinics, the DACoP is for you.

How often the DACoP meets

The DACoP meets once a month for . It’s run by the Web Standards team from Te Tari Taiwhenua | Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).

When and where for meetings

What the DACoP is about

The DACoP is for sharing and learning about the interesting, innovative or just plain exciting things practitioners are doing to make the digital world more accessible. Each meeting will include 1 or 2 presentations ranging from to .

The meetings are also a forum for people to ask questions, general or specific, theoretical or technical, about digital accessibility. The emphasis is on best practice and practical solutions.

Who can attend

The DACoP is for anyone involved in delivering digital services — public or private sector.

It’s free to join and attendance at the monthly sessions is on a drop-in basis — no reservation is needed. Many people come and go during meetings as their schedules allow.

Do you care to share?

If you’re keen to share what you’re doing or thinking about digital accessibility, the community would love to hear it. You could do a show and tell, a presentation with slides, or anything in between. If this is something you’re interested in doing, please email web.standards@dia.govt.nz.

Meetings are not recorded

To create a safe space for attendees, the meetings are not recorded. The only information recorded is the organisations represented by attendees and the topics of discussion.

When and where for meetings

The meetings are held via Microsoft Teams only, on the last Thursday of each month, from to .

To get the Teams link for the meetings, email web.standards@dia.govt.nz.

2025 meeting dates

Upcoming presentations

Free accessibility tools and how to use them

Maia Miller will explore a range of free tools that fit into each part of the development lifecycle. These will help you check, improve, and maintain accessibility in your digital products.

Maia is the Managing Director of Aleph Accessibility, a web accessibility consultancy based in Wellington NZ. She can translate complex concepts into clear and easily digestible content. She presents practical strategies to embed accessibility into digital products.

Getting senior stakeholder engagement

Daniel Van Ammers from Catalyst will answer these questions:

  • What is senior stakeholder buy-in and why does it matter?
  • What are some of the challenges we face in the accessibility space?
  • How do we gain and maintain buy-in?

What Whaikaha Ministry of Disabled People is doing next

In October, Ginny Baddeley and Briony Tustanowski will talk about the work Whaikaha is doing to increase the availability and accessibility of information for disabled people.

This will include talking about:

  • the Accessibility Charter
  • the All-of-Government Alternate Formats translation service
  • educating agencies to develop accessible information
  • providing an integrated source of government information and advice on disability.

Topic to be confirmed

In our final meeting for , Intopia Digital will share their expertise about an accessibility topic to be confirmed.

Previous presentations

Utility links and page information

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