ACCESSIBILITY

Huntsville Accessible Transit

The Town of Huntsville has two accessible public transit buses which run daily.  One bus is on a scheduled route and one is a specialized service which offers door-to-door pick up with 24 hours advance notice.  Please visit the Transit page for routes, fees, contacts and further information.

Tactile Map

A large detailed floor plan of the Town Hall and the Algonquin Theatre is located on the wall in the front lobby (37 Main Street East).  The map includes a tactile surface and Braille that will benefit persons who have a visual disability. 

TTY Service

Dedicated Phone Line (705) 789-1768

In an effort to address accessibility issues within the Corporation of the Town of Huntsville, we now offer a TTY service which will benefit persons who have a hearing impairment or disability.

What is it?

TTY is an acronym often used for Text Telephone or TeleTypewriter.  The TTY machine acts as a line of communication between the Town Hall and those who are hearing impaired.  It will ring through to reception as would a regular phone, but will allow the ability to type messages back and forth to correspond with the individual on the other line.

Where is it located?

The TTY machine is at the Town Hall, 37 Main Street East in Huntsville.  It has been strategically placed on the 3rd floor in order for staff to monitor incoming calls and messages.

Although it is only located at Town Hall, staff will act as a relay service to exterior departments and will direct all incoming calls as required.

How do I contact the Town of Huntsville using this service?

If you have a TTY machine, please dial 705-789-1768 and your call will be answered or will go to a message mailbox in order for someone to return the call as soon as it is received by staff.

Accessible Pedestrian Signals

Information :(705) 789-5684 ext. 3821
Toll Free: 1-888-696-4255.

This system installation could not have been possible without the help from the following: VIP’s (Visually Impaired Persons), Accessibility Advisory Committee, The District Municipality of Muskoka and the Town of Huntsville .

What are they?

Accessible Pedestrian Signals are a device which allows the visually impaired to be able to cross at intersections safely. This device has been installed at 2 intersections within the Town of Huntsville .

Where are they located?

Accessible Pedestrian Signals have been installed on:

• Main St. at Brunel Rd.
• Main St. at Centre St .

How they Work

• The push buttons have a “locator” tone which allows them to be located on the signal posts. This tone is a low frequency tone that can be heard by the human ear.
• There is a tactile arrow which points in the crossing direction.
• To operate, push the button. You will hear a click. Hold the button for at least 3 seconds and you will hear another click. This identifies that the system recognizes the needs for the crossing sounds.
• North/South crossing will make a “cuckoo, cuckoo” sound.
• East/West crossings will make a “peep, peep” sound.
• The system has a voice count down from 10 seconds to make the user aware of the time left for crossing.

When they Operate

• The audible system operates 24 hours a day
• The system also works as a regular crossing system when the audible signals are not required.
• The audible system volume is based on background volume

The Audible Signals brochure is available in the following two download formats:

Audible Signals (Microsoft Word)
Audible Signals (Adobe pdf)

Ontario Mainstreet Accessibility Award 2006

Town of Huntsville is a recipient of the Ontario Mainstreet Accessibility Award 2006 for outstanding achievement in and promotion of universal access and diversity by successfully hosting the Provincial Winter Paralympic Championships. The awards program was developed through partnership between the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA), the Ontario Business Improvement Areas Association (OBIAA), and the Ontario Government. The awards were created to recognize the efforts of small businesses and communities in Ontario that have significantly improved accessibility and reduced barriers for people with disabilities.

Mandate

The Town of Huntsville's web site is designed with the intent to provide access to the widest possible audience. The design is based on a set of content accessibility standards and guidelines that we developed in recognition of persons with disabilities. Sources used in the development of these guidelines include World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)   Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and Section 508. This site is designed to provide access to those relying on keyboard navigation, people with Javascript disabled within their browsers, and those using assistive technologies.

The first phase of our accessibility initiative involved establishing the Accessibility Standards and Guidelines and applying them to the technical design and new information on the site. Making the site fully accessible is our goal. We are continuing to investigate methods to convert Adobe Acrobat pdf files and tabular information from our old site to an accessible format. Subsequent site development will be designed to comply with our Accessibility Standards and Guidelines.

Accessibility Features and Site Orientation

This site contains a number of features intended to aid in navigation using assistive technologies.

All pages within this site (excluding links within the main content of a page) can be accessed within three levels or "clicks". The horizontal menu at the top of each page contains the top level. A Javascript menu (that is not fully accessible) on the left side of each page provides navigation to second and third levels. Depending upon where you are within the site, a second set of text-based links provide the same functionality as the menu on the left, with or without having Javascript disabled. These links are found near the bottom of each page and can be accessed directly using a quick access key sequence.

A skip-to-content link will bypass the reading of repetative links by screen readers. The skip-to-text-navigation and skip-to-content links are hidden links and are the first available on every page. The targets of these links are also accessible using a quick access key sequence. A complete list of quick access keys is provided in the following table.

Standard HTML heading and paragraph styles that can be organized using screen readers, are used within the main content of each page.

Frames are not used.

Requests for Multi-Format Documents

The Town of Huntsville is pleased to offer a Multi-Format option for all Municipal Documents. 

Should you require a Municipal Document in an alternate format, or if you require further assistance or have accessibility concerns, please contact:

Text Navigation Menu, Accessibility