Special News Release

American Council of the Blind Alliance Assists with ADA Website Upgrades

The American Council of the Blind (ACB) and Community Collaboration have formed an alliance to assist municipalities in every aspect of ADA website conversion and compliance.

“We are excited to be teaming up with Community Collaboration and working with municipalities to ensure their websites are accessible to all,” comments Kolby Garrison, Accessibility & Training Services Coordinator, ACB.

Upgrading a municipal website can be very time consuming, technically complicated, and very costly. And for smaller municipalities, this can be a really big challenge. The alliance is using only properly coded ADA site architecture and design elements using correct WCAG compliance standards as well as developing special programs, platforms, and arrangements to assist municipalities with their website ADA conversions, making the upgrade easier, less time-consuming, and more budget-friendly. Heed this warning about ‘simple ADA solutions such as overlays or plug-ins’ from the ACB:

“Rather than improving usability, overlays tend to override personalized settings, introduce unexpected behaviors, or even block access entirely. As a result, users who rely on assistive technologies often find websites using overlays more difficult, or impossible, to use. The widespread consensus from both accessibility experts and native assistive technology users is these tools offer superficial compliance without delivering true accessibility.”

Municipalities can’t afford to invest in ineffective solutions only to realize the site is not ADA compliant when faced with an unexpected lawsuit. Don’t make this mistake!

ADA Compliance Presentation

As you begin budgeting for your 2026 ADA website upgrades, please take a moment to review the downloadable information below to better understand today’s web trends and what truly makes a website WCAG compliant. You’ll learn how:

Citizens access information on the internet today
Declining reading capacity affects site content
Declining digital attention span impacts site design
Audio streaming content improves visitor experience and ADA compliance

Schedule an informative ADA Compliance Presentation directly from the safe and link-friendly downloadable pdf or sign-up form link. If your current website provider is not fully capable of fulfilling ADA compliance requirements, you’ll need to find the proper expertise who will convert your website correctly to avoid potential lawsuits.

Download ADA Compliance Information

Arrange ADA Compliance Presentation

News Release

Community Collaboration Retained for 12 Months of Services

City of Taylors Falls’ council members unanimously agreed to continue moving forward with many of the planning needs and projects resulting from recently completed strategic planning and Community Action Plan (CAP) processes. The identified scope of work includes strategic planning goals and objectives from council members and staff as well as final recommendations showcased by the Community Action Plan (CAP) volunteer committee at their community presentation on May 15 at the elementary school. The 12-month scope of work includes:

Required website ADA compliance upgrades
Branding initiative (CAP)
Communication upgrades
Financial and budget planning
Grant sourcing
Economic development
Downtown revitalization (CAP)
Parks and trails planning (CAP)
Comprehensive plan update

These activities and others are in conjunction with the city’s comprehensive plan update. CAP and strategic planning consults, Community Collaboration and the NorthStar Grp, have been retained to assist the city in these activities.

View the CAP Presentation

In May Taylors Falls residents and city council attended the CAP committee’s presentation to learn of their ideas, concepts and recommendations from five subcommittees each focused on a specific aspect of the community and comprehensive plan. The presentation can be viewed using the QR code at right.

Would you like to learn more about this project or CAP Process? Let us know!

Todd’s presentation ‘Empowering the Public to Engage, Collaborate, and Develop a Community Action Plan’ at the ICMA annual conference in Pittsburgh, PA was honored as BEST of IMCA 2024 and selected for ICMA’s On-Demand membership training and AICP-CM certification. If you didn’t attend the ICMA conference but are interested in viewing the presentation, please complete the interest form.

What Others Say About Community Collaboration

“What I like about the new approach is that the city officials step back and let the community dream away without consideration of what staff may think. It is truly liberating for the community and the city.” – Lynda Woulfe, Former Administrator, City of Cambridge, MN

“They were fresh ideas to plot the course of city government and planning going forward and thought it was incredible the number of new faces, folks I didn’t know that were part of this and I think that’s unbelievably refreshing.” – Mike Montello, Council President, City of New Richmond, WI

“We are taking this entire concept and now we are applying it to government. So that to me speaks to the impact of how this Comp Plan has changed things.” – Fred Horne, Former Mayor, City of New Richmond, WI

“It is incredible the way the Community Collaboration method engaged and activated the interest of our community. Citizens were truly empowered to participate and develop a vision for the Village Green Center. I am amazed the creativity and enthusiasm it sparked, and grateful for the relationships the process created.” – Nathan R. Thiel, Former Village Administrator, Village of Pleasant Prairie, WI

“Having watched Todd’s work and seen the results, I believe a committed focus to needs, concerns and desires of the community should be included in the public engagement process for any community improvement project or comprehensive plan update.” – Bill Turnblad, Former Community Development Director, City of Stillwater, MN

“It’s a fun process. I learned a lot and I can tell you I’m quite passionate now. I feel honored to be part of this process.” – New Richmond, WI Comprehensive Plan Committee Member

“Todd – thank you for your phenomenal leadership, communication and motivation. Very nice job!!” – City of Cambridge, MN Downtown Revitalization Committee Member

“I found your approach to be right on track with what everyone always talks about doing, but rarely ever actually does.” – APA conference presentation attendee

Learn More About Community Collaboration

Call or email to learn more about Community Collaboration’s award wining Community Action Plan™ engagement approach and how it can help your municipality, business or organization: