ADA Compliance

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITES ACT

Have a concern about accessibility to our website or to our building? Let us know by filling out this form below.

The ADA and Crystal Lake Township:
Federal law, known as the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), is all about accessibility, to both information and to physical facilities. Specifically, as this applies to our township, this means our physical facilities and our information should be accessible to all, regardless of those limited by any number of challenges. Federal law mandates can be found here: ADA

State law also mandates via Section 302 of Article 3 of the Michigan Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, Public Act 220 of 1976. It requires that persons with disabilities must have equal access to township programs and facilities. A township needs to follow Michigan Construction Code requirements, and must comply with the Michigan statute for access to public buildings--Michigan Utilization of Public Facilities by Physically Limited, PA 1 of 1966 (For more information: MI Disability Resources.)

Crystal Lake Township strives to provide such mandated access to facilities, tools and data. In recent years, Crystal Lake Township has made significant improvements in making its facilities more accessible, be it with better parking signage and markings for ADA parking spaces or with an ADA-compliant accessible pathway on the outside, electric push-button door to access the interior of the hall, and a navigable ramp up from ground level to the office level where business is conducted. But accessibility could be improved. Please give us feedback so we can better identify our non-compliant spots and have them fixed. Our hall was originally built just after WWII and leaves much to be improved upon to fit with a modern society's needs.

Web Accessibility:
Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. Here, too, Crystal Lake Township strives to accommodate. Our optimal web accessibility would allow everyone with disabilities to access the World Wide Web (WWW). More specifically, we would optimally like for interested persons to have the opportunity to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web. We are just getting started on this area of improvement and just would, again, ask for your feedback so that we can improve further on areas we may be neglecting.

You are viewing this information on our township website, so you already know that we maintain a website for displaying township-related information. Notice that there is a little blue circle which appears on the Homepage, featuring a human stick figure with it's arms raised? We contract with a company called Userway to assist with making the website ADA complaint and that is their widget. If you have certain conditions that require various types of help, click on that button and choose to manipulate the appearances of the website to suit your preferences.

And did you know that Crystal Lake Township now hosts a "public" or "constituent" computer in our hall? If you don't have your own computer or bandwidth access, you can use ours during business hours to look up township-related information.

Lastly, if you have a suggestion for what information you'd like to see accessible on our website, please communication that to us. The supervisor is currently the webmaster.

Web Accessibility to Benefit Everyone:
Accessibility also benefits people without disabilities. For example:

people using mobile phones, smart watches, smart TVs, and other devices with small screens, different input modes, etc.
older people with changing abilities due to the aging process
people with “temporary disabilities” such as a broken arm or lost glasses
people with “situational limitations” such as in bright sunlight or in an environment where they cannot listen to audio
people using a slow Internet connection, or who have limited or expensive bandwidth