Accessibility Services
Accessibility Statement
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We are committed to the ongoing process of making our city, services, and digital environments welcoming and more accessible.
Please let us know what you liked about using the City of Hamilton’s website, or if you had trouble with any part of it.
We want everyone who visits the City of Hamilton’s website to feel welcome and find the experience rewarding. The City of Hamilton is committed to the goals set out in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), 2005 and its regulations. The Integrated Accessibility Standard Regulation (IASR) calls for all new websites for organizations with more than 50 employees to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA.
At the City of Hamilton we are striving to design and test to comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Where possible we will try to align with WCAG 2.2 to ensure forward compatibility.
What are we doing?
To help us make the City of Hamilton’s website a positive place for everyone and to comply with the AODA/IASR, we’ve been conducting automatic, manual, and end-user testing to help us update our website to ensure WCAG compliance. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities, and user friendly for everyone.
Accessibility features
Our website makes use of industry-standard techniques and best practices to provide the highest possible level of web site accessibility for our users, including:
- Our website is keyboard navigable, screen reader compatible, and demonstrates proper magnification and reflow.
- Any information conveyed with colour is still readable if a user is unable to distinguish colour.
- Images used on our website contain a textual description.
- All font sizes used on our website use relative units of measurement. This makes scaling the font-size easier and more consistent.
- All webpages use headings to create a proper document structure.
Accessibility barriers
Due to conditions beyond our control, there are some instances where we are unable to provide information in an accessible format. For example, some HSR maps, RSS feeds, or content we don’t have control over. We will introduce accessible solutions as they become available.
PDF documents
We are working to reduce, remove, and remediate PDF documents on the City’s website.
Effective May 4, 2026:
- Documents posted on any city-managed website or digital platform that the City controls directly or by contract will be accessible.
- In cases where there is a legislative requirement for a document to be published to a City website within a specified timeframe, it is permissible for a non-compliant document to be published temporarily, providing that it is replaced with a compliant document within 10 business days of publication.
Between June and December 2026 (on going as needed):
- We will work to improve the user experience by ensuring only relevant, current, and valuable documents remain on the website.
- Remediate remaining documents for accessibility.
Our goal is to continue to be transparent.
Any document that is no longer on the website is still available upon request. Please contact the responsible department to request a copy.
Visual materials
Some complex visual materials, such as architectural drawings, engineering diagrams, blueprints, site plans, technical schematics, and geographical maps, are not yet fully compliant. These assets may lack sufficient text alternatives, structural descriptions, or other non-visual formats needed to ensure full accessibility for all users.
As such, it is permissible for non-compliant drawings to be published providing that the division that created or submitted the visual materials for publication will provide an alternate accessible format (e.g., a text description of the drawing) upon request within 3 business days.
How are we doing?
We’ve worked hard on the City of Hamilton website and believe, outside of our documents, that we’ve achieved our goal of WCAG 2.0 Level AA.
We are continuing to work on the accessibility of our documents and will strive to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA and WCAG 2.2 where possible.
We monitor the website regularly to maintain accessibility and usability, but if you find any problems, please let us know.
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