Accessibility
The Children's Court understands the importance of having an accessible website. Our goal is to provide information to as many people as possible. Please contact the court if you are having any problems.
Accessibility accreditation
GrackleDocs completed an audit of this website on 27 November 2025. The audit was a sample selection of 5 pages. These pages contain all elements used throughout the website. The audit process was based on the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology.
All elements of the tested pages are certified to conform with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 Level AA standard. The accessibility guidelines are developed by the World Wide Web Consortium also known as W3C.
The website was also tested by users who have lived experience with disabilities. These users rely on assistive technologies to access and use digital content daily. They found no major barriers or usability issues with the website. The extra user testing has given us platinum status.
Accessibility accreditation information from GrackleDocs
Plain language
We have used plain language wherever we could. The Hemingway Editor was used to check that the content is at a year 8 reading level or lower.
Dark mode
We now have a dark mode version of our website that you will see if dark mode is turned on in your browser settings.
For help with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge browsers, PCMag has details on How to enable dark mode on your browser.
Documents
From November 2024 documents will also be more accessible. Any new or updated PDF document will be tested for PDF/UA compliance using GrackleGo.
PDF/UA stands for Portable Document Format Universal Accessibility. It is a global standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
GrackleGo creates a detailed report showing if a document has passed or failed. We are making sure that the accessibility grade is A.
Documents will open in the same browser window.
Known exceptions
Some forms may not fully meet PDF/UA compliance. This happens when compliance would make the form harder to use.
The Criminal jurisdiction - Application in or after prosecution form is one example. It contains three copies in one file. When you fill in the form, your information is automatically copied to all three copies. This means you only need to enter your information once.
This feature requires duplicate form fields and this does not meet PDF/UA standards. Removing them would mean people have to enter the same information three times.
We believe auto-filling is more important than technical compliance in this case. All fields have descriptive labels, and the first form is PDF/UA compliant.
The forms that do not currently comply with PDF/UA are:
- Criminal jurisdiction - Application in or after prosecution.
- Criminal jurisdiction - Witness summons to give oral evidence.
- Criminal jurisdiction - Witness summons to produce a record or thing.
- Protection and care - Witness summons to give oral evidence.
- Protection and care - Witness summons to produce a record or thing.
- Application - disease test orders
Other documents that do not comply include:
- Dandjoo Bidi-Ak Guidelines.
- Transcripts created by an external company.
Viewing documents
If you do not have the software to view documents, the following free downloads are available.
OpenOffice for Linux, Mac OS X and Window.
Australian Access Awards
The Australian Access Awards are run by the Centre for Accessibility Australia. They recognise and honour outstanding achievements in digital accessibility. These awards acknowledge best practices in creating inclusive digital spaces.
In 2023 and 2025 the Children's Court website was a finalist in the government category.
ReadSpeaker
Another function available on this website to improve useability is ReadSpeaker. This is a free service and does not need anything extra to use.
A "Listen" button is on the top of every page.
Clicking on the button will load a toolbar and you will then hear the page read out. The tool bar lets you stop or pause the reading. During the reading, you can follow the highlighted words on the web page.
Next to documents is also a "Listen" icon. Select the icon to listen to the document and follow the highlighted words as they are being read to you.
You can hear the whole document or select certain parts.
Last updated: 8 May 2026