Austin City Connection Help with Navigation

On this page

Information at Top of Page

• Logo: The logo is linked back to the Home Page of the site.
• Search: Simply enter the set of pages you wish to search and the word(s) you're searching for. We've divided the pages into sets (Budget (which includes performance reports), Council Meeting Agendas, Council Meeting Transcripts, Approved Council Minutes, News Releases) to help screen out irrelevant information.
• Options - Search: By clicking on Options, you have more options to specify your search criteria.
• Select a Service: A list of quick links to the most-demanded City services.
• Select a Map: Ways of getting around town, geographic information, etc.
• Site Map: A broad scope of the pages within the Austin City Connection site, listed alphabetically.
• Directory: An indexed, alphabetical list of City departments and/or services.
• Departments: A complete City organization chart and an alphabetical list with contact information.
• FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
• Links: A list of sites (outside of ACC) of use to Austin residents and visitors.
• Site Map: A list of links to all home pages of departments or major services, a list of Spanish-translated pages, and maps.
• Help: a link to this page.
• Contact Us: A page with the Web intake form, commonly-needed e-mail addresses, important phone numbers, and an electronic form which you can use to send us questions and/or feedback. If you're not sure where to go from here, ask us.

Information at the bottom of the page

In most cases a footer is placed on the page. The footer contains Department contact information, as well as contact information for the City of Austin.

ADA User Tips for Using our Web Site

Looking for Services?

The best way to find a service on the Web site is to use the A to Z Customer Service Directory. If you are using assistive technology or a text reader, there is a link to it on the top of every page if you do not skip to the main content immediately upon arriving on the page. When you click on the link "directory", you will find links to all the services by alphabetical letter on that page. You will be on the A page. The pages are set up in tables with three columns. The first one is the name of the service or office. Just go down that column until you find what you are looking for (it’s in alphabetical order, also) such as animal services and then click on it if it is a link to find out information, or go to the next column if you want the phone number or go to the third column to find a link to their e-mail address and write to them with your question.

If you do not want to go through all of that, don’t skip to the main content and click on Contact Us. That page takes you to a Web Intake form, many commonly requested links and then important phone numbers. After all that, you will come to an electronic form. You can ask anything in there and we will forward your request to the proper department. If you are asking a question that does not fall within City jurisdiction; e.g. Marriage records, we will give you referral information. If you are asking for information that we do not have, we can spend 15 minutes researching it. Then we can, in some instances, ask the Library to also research it.

The Home Page

Our home page has many links on it. Some are static and some are changed every day. The first list is of major departments. Then there is a search box. Then there are links to services in an extremely long drop down box. Use the Directory for more ease. If you skipped to main content, you arrived in the news section. This gives you the current news releases from various departments. At the bottom of that are links to about 4 different longer term programs that are topical or seasonal. Next you will come to the calendar of events. It has public notices of meetings that are being held, typically during the next few days. The first section tells you of Council meetings, the next of Boards and Commissions meetings (this would include the Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities), the next section is of music events out at the airport and the fourth tells about parks events. There are usually way too many parks events to get all in that space so click on "More Parks Events" to read them all. The Parks Department’s phone number is 974-6700. All of the sections link to the full month’s calendar of events for that section. Calendar events are in chronological order, by day, and then the day’s events are alphabetical.

Structure of the Site

It is divided up largely by department and each department tends to have a home page. Some of their home pages also have news releases; e.g. health, and calendars; e.g. Small Business Development Program. In our banner, we have a link to the home page, the search box, Select a Service, Select a Map, links to the Directory, to the Departments; either by organizational chart (not accessible), or alphabetical order, links to commonly needed external links, and the help page on which this resides. Our privacy policy, our legal notice, and overall city contact information are in the footer.

Personal Help

If you need any help of any kind, you can get personalized guidance at 311@ci.austin.tx.us or call 974-2000 (3-1-1).