Every question. One page.

TinkyTown is a countertop communication system — an ADA Title II and Title III auxiliary device under 28 CFR § 35.104 and § 36.303. A visitor scans a QR code at the counter, the system opens on their own phone in 120+ languages with picture-driven tiles, and it speaks their words to staff in English. Staff replies are translated back. It is deployed across 14 venue verticals: town halls, hospitals, libraries, banks, airports, hotels, grocery, restaurants, schools, pharmacies, DMVs, USPS, police non-emergency, and home/family use.

The visitor scans the QR poster on the counter with their phone camera. The TinkyTown board for that specific venue loads in their browser — no app install. They pick their language, tap the tiles that match what they need, and the device speaks their words aloud to staff. Staff replies are translated bilaterally. For visitors without a phone, the counter keeps a tablet running the same surface.

It is the procurement-side category language used by State ADA Officers, county risk managers, hospital patient-experience offices, and hotel-group compliance teams to describe the auxiliary device that lives at a public-facing service counter. Same product as "ADA auxiliary device" or "QR-based AAC" — buyer-side language vs. regulator-side language. We use the buyer-side category in sales conversations because it matches what gets typed into a procurement search box.

No. TinkyTown runs in the visitor's existing phone browser the moment they scan the QR. There is no App Store download, no account, no permission grant beyond microphone (only if they want to speak instead of tap). The whole interaction is over the moment they walk away from the counter — no install footprint left behind. This is deliberate: the auxiliary aid obligation does not depend on the visitor agreeing to download anything.

120+ languages, bilateral — meaning translation works in both directions (visitor → staff and staff → visitor). The list includes major world languages, refugee-resettlement languages (Pashto, Dari, Tigrinya, Karen, Burmese, Ukrainian), Pacific Islander languages (Samoan, Tongan, Marshallese, Hawaiian), and indigenous American languages. Every paid tier and every free tier gets the same 120+ language coverage — there is no "lite" version of the language list.

TinkyTown satisfies the effective-communication mandate under 28 CFR § 35.160 (Title II) and 28 CFR § 36.303 (Title III) for transactional counter interactions. ADA compliance is broader than communication alone — it also includes physical access, web accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA per the April 24, 2026 federal rule), and policy modifications. TinkyTown closes the communication gap; it does not replace the rest of your ADA program. We provide the documentation pack your insurance and ADA Coordinator need at renewal. See our 2026 auxiliary devices guide for the full regulatory map.

28 CFR § 35.160 requires public entities (Title II) to ensure that communications with individuals with disabilities are as effective as communications with others. § 35.160(b)(2) lists the three-factor test — nature, length, and complexity of the communication — and requires the entity to give "primary consideration" to the individual's requested aid. A QR-based, multilingual, picture-driven board is an appropriate aid for transactional counter interactions (2–10 minutes, structured topic) and is named in the "other effective methods" catch-all under § 35.104. See our deep-dive on primary consideration and on how QR boards satisfy § 35.160.

Yes. Title II covers state and local government (town halls, DMVs, public schools, police non-emergency, public libraries, public hospitals). Title III covers public accommodations (hotels, banks, retail, grocery, restaurants, private hospitals, pharmacies). The auxiliary-aid obligation lives in both — 28 CFR § 35.160 (Title II) and 28 CFR § 36.303 (Title III) — and TinkyTown is designed to satisfy both simultaneously. Airports stack ACAA on top, schools stack Section 504 and IDEA, healthcare stacks Section 1557. The 14 venue boards are pre-mapped to the right combination.

Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act requires covered healthcare entities (hospitals, clinics receiving federal funds, Medicare/Medicaid participants) to provide meaningful access for Limited English Proficient patients and effective communication for patients with disabilities. The TinkyTown healthcare tier ships with Section 1557 + Title VI + HIPAA-aligned documentation and BAA on request. Hospital deployments are quoted with a § 1557 overlay; standard clinic deployments include the language-access notice and tagline requirements that § 1557 specifies.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act prohibits disability discrimination by any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. It applies to public schools, federally funded hospitals, USPS, and many transit, housing, and social-service programs. The Section 504 communication obligation tracks the ADA § 35.160 standard, so TinkyTown's deployment satisfies both layers simultaneously for entities subject to either. Schools also stack IDEA for IEP-process communication.

Stacey Lumley, Connecticut State ADA Officer, reviewed TinkyTown, validated its fit for the effective-communication mandate under § 35.160, and directed 151 Connecticut towns to deploy. The first town hall pilot is live at West Hartford, CT. Pilots in healthcare, hotels (Delamar West Hartford, expanding through Greenwich Hospitality Group), grocery (Big Y, Aldi), and airports (BDL, covering the 36-airport vertical) are underway. The CT validation is a procurement template — we are actively recruiting the next state.

Five tiers:

(1) Free forever — libraries and K-12 public schools. $0, ever.
(2) $150–$300/mo — small food & beverage (independent restaurants, coffee shops, bagel shops, food trucks, small chains). Priced by counter count + foot traffic.
(3) $725/mo flat — standard tier (town halls, hotels, banks, pharmacies, retail, civic counters, chain-restaurant locations). Per entity.
(4) $750–$50,000/mo — healthcare. $750/mo entry for a single-doctor clinic. Scales to $50K/mo for a hospital system with multi-department deployment + § 1557 + HIPAA + BAA.
(5) $5,000–$80,000+/mo — enterprise / metro. Universities, major airports, statewide rollouts, NYC/LA/Chicago metros. Largest deployments reach ~$1 million/year.

Every paid tier starts with 45 days free. No contract. Cancel any time. Full tier card at /pricing.html.

Libraries and K-12 schools are free forever. It's a mission statement, not a marketing tactic. We pay for it out of paid-tier revenue. The venues that serve the most vulnerable populations — ESL learners at the library, kids with disabilities in school, homeless patrons looking for shelter info, the elderly asking for tax-form help, the deaf parent at IEP — should never be charged to be heard. Same exact product as the paid tiers: all 14 venue boards, 20 universal sub-boards, 120+ languages, no "lite" version.

You sign up. We configure your deployment. You get your QR + URL + printable poster within 24 hours. Day 1 through day 45 = $0. After day 45, regular monthly billing starts at your tier's rate. No card is required for libraries or K-12 schools. Paid tiers require a card on file at signup but it is not charged until day 46. The trial is on every paid tier — small food & beverage, standard, healthcare, enterprise.

Email us. We cancel same day. Gladly. No retention specialist phone tree, no automated re-engagement flow, no "we're sorry to see you go, here's 50% off" gimmick. We just ask: why are you leaving and where are you going?

If we haven't changed someone's life by day 45, cancel any time. Just tell us why and where. That feedback is the only "term" we ask for. You can cancel during the 45-day trial or any time after.

The 45-day trial window is fully refundable (it is $0 to begin with). After day 45, payments are non-refundable for the current month, but you can cancel any time and you will not be charged for the next month. If something specific goes wrong on our end — downtime, broken deployment, a counter that never worked — we will refund on a case-by-case basis. Email lukekist@tinkytown.com, we will make it right.

24 to 48 hours from signup to live. The standard tier (town halls, hotels, banks, etc.) ships with a pre-built venue board, so the only configuration is your name, address, hours, and counter-specific language (e.g., "permits" for a town hall, "front desk" for a hotel). Hospitals, universities, and airports take longer because the deployment is genuinely larger — we will give you a written timeline at quote.

Zero. There is no TinkyTown hardware to install, mount, charge, or service. Visitors use their own phones. The only physical asset on your counter is the QR poster — a sheet of paper.

For visitors without a phone, the counter keeps a tablet running the same surface. You can use any tablet you already own (we provide the kiosk-mode lockdown profile). The decision to add a counter tablet is optional but is the standard "no smartphone" edge case answer.

No. The standard tier (town halls, hotels, banks, etc.) requires zero IT involvement — there is nothing to install on your network, no firewall rule to open, no certificate to manage. A receptionist or office manager can deploy by signing up, downloading the poster PDF, and printing it. Hospitals and universities involve IT only because they want to involve IT (SSO integration, BAA execution, vendor risk review) — even then the technical footprint is just a hosted URL.

Letter-size (8.5 x 11) print-ready PDF, delivered to your inbox within 24 hours of signup. The poster shows a large QR code, your venue name, a "Scan to talk in your language" headline, and the international communication-access symbol. Multilingual sub-text ("Español · العربية · 中文 · ...") signals to non-English speakers that the system will work for them.

Three ways to get it on your counter: (1) self-print on your own printer (instant, free); (2) ship-to-me — we ship a laminated counter sign for a one-time $25 fee; (3) local print shop — we email you the PDF + a list of nearby print shops (Office Depot, FedEx Office, Staples, UPS Store) within 5 miles of your address.

On the counter at eye level, within arm's reach, on the visitor-facing side. The deployment guide ships with placement diagrams for each of the 14 venue types — a town hall permit counter places it next to the intake window; a hotel front desk places it on the counter near the bell; a hospital triage counter places it on a stand visible from the waiting chairs. The goal is that anyone walking up can see and scan without asking staff for permission — that step is the single biggest friction killer.

We collect the minimum needed to make the system work — language preference, the tiles tapped during a session, and aggregated counts for capacity planning. We do not collect visitor names, phone numbers, government IDs, biometric data, or any identifier that ties a session to a person. Sessions are ephemeral and end when the visitor closes the tab. See /security.html for the full security breakdown.

The healthcare tier ships HIPAA-aligned with a Business Associate Agreement available on request. Hospital-system deployments include the BAA + Section 1557 + Title VI overlay in the quote. The visitor-facing surface is designed so that protected health information is never persisted server-side. See /security.html for the full security breakdown.

Cloudflare's global edge network (Workers + KV + D1). Production data is hosted in the United States by default. Enterprise customers can request region-locked deployment as part of the quote. We do not sell data to anyone, ever. See /security.html for the full security breakdown.

TinkyTown's data-minimization design — no visitor identifiers, ephemeral sessions, no behavioral profiling — aligns with the GDPR's purpose-limitation and data-minimization principles. We are a US-based product primarily serving US customers. EU-based public entities that wish to deploy can request a Data Processing Addendum during the enterprise quote. See /security.html for the full security breakdown.

The standard QR poster is inaccessible to a deaf-blind visitor, which is why the deployment guide pairs it with tactile signage at the counter ("Deaf-Blind: tap here for help" in raised lettering and braille) and a counter-resident tablet with VoiceOver/TalkBack screen-reader support pre-enabled. The Helen Keller National Center SSP (Support Service Provider) framework is the field standard for the most complex deaf-blind interactions; TinkyTown does not replace SSP but handles the transactional layer. See our edge-cases guide for the full disability profile map.

The counter keeps a tablet running the same TinkyTown surface in kiosk-locked mode. Cleaning protocol between users. Backup paper communication card for when the tablet fails. The lost-wallet, stolen-phone, just-evicted, just-discharged walk-in is often the highest-need visitor of the day — 28 CFR § 35.104 explicitly covers "acquisition or modification of equipment or devices" by the entity, so the obligation to provide an auxiliary aid does not depend on the visitor arriving with technology.

TinkyTown is bilateral in 120+ languages — the visitor selects their language at the start of the session and every tile, every staff reply, every prompt translates both directions. The poster's multilingual sub-text signals "this works for you" to non-English speakers before they even scan. For healthcare deployments, Section 1557 language-access taglines are pre-built into the deployment. For Title VI-covered programs, the LEP four-factor analysis is documented in the renewal pack. See our LEP guide.

The visitor surface is built to WCAG 2.1 AA target-size guidance (≥44×44 px tap targets), supports iOS Switch Control and Android Accessibility Switch, works with gaze input on devices that have it, and supports voice input as an alternative to tapping. A visitor who cannot tap can still speak the tile name aloud and the system will surface and confirm it. For the most severe motor cases, the counter tablet supports an external switch (3.5mm jack).

Every TinkyTown deployment inherits the universal accessibility sub-board, which includes a "panic / sensory" tile that surfaces four options: (1) request a quieter room, (2) request a delay, (3) request pen-and-paper interaction, (4) request to come back later with a companion. The accommodation is grounded in 28 CFR § 35.130(b)(7), which requires reasonable modifications of policies, practices, and procedures. Staff are trained to honor all four without questioning the diagnosis.

Every TinkyTown deployment inherits the universal emergency sub-board (10 tiles) and the crisis-support sub-board (988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline call+text, Veterans Crisis Line, Trevor Project, Trans Lifeline, SAMHSA Naloxone+overdose path, abuse-report routing including CT DCF/APS and national hotlines). All hotline numbers are SAMHSA Safe Messaging compliant.

TinkyTown is NOT a substitute for 911 — for police emergency, dial 911 directly. The police-non-emergency vertical is for desk reports, property, fingerprinting only.

Yes. The standard $725/mo covers one entity. A town with one town hall is one entity. A hotel with one property is one entity. A chain with multiple locations adds an entity per location. We do not cap; we just do not bundle locations under one fee. If you operate 3+ locations you get better economics by jumping to the enterprise tier where we quote on volume. The CT model started with one West Hartford pilot and is now expanding to 151 towns — exactly this trajectory.

Every paid tier is a pilot for 45 days. That is the trial. You sign up, deploy at one counter, see real walk-in usage, and decide on day 45 whether to continue. Enterprise customers (hospitals, universities, airports, statewide) typically run a 90-day formal pilot with deeper instrumentation — we structure that as a written pilot agreement at quote, separate from the 45-day standard trial. Pilot page: /pilots.html.

Stacey Lumley, Connecticut State ADA Officer, reviewed TinkyTown, validated its fit for the effective-communication mandate under § 35.160, and directed 151 Connecticut towns to deploy. The first live pilot is at West Hartford Town Hall.

The CT validation is a procurement template for other states — a State ADA Officer can review the same materials Stacey reviewed, validate the fit for their state, and direct municipalities to deploy. We are actively recruiting the next state. If you are a State ADA Officer reading this, email lukekist@tinkytown.com for the same review packet.

An ASL or qualified interpreter is appropriate for extended, complex interactions — court proceedings, medical informed consent, multi-hour IEP meetings — and remains a required aid under 28 CFR § 35.160(b)(2) for those contexts. TinkyTown is the always-available first response and the bridge while a specialized service arrives.

ASL interpreter cost is $150–$300 per visit (interpreter contracts run $50,000+/year for medium volume). TinkyTown's subscription is a small fraction of that and covers every walk-in, every counter, every language, 24/7. See our interpreter-cost comparison.

Google Translate is a generic text-translation utility. TinkyTown is a venue-specific, picture-driven, ADA-documented system that includes: the universal emergency, accessibility, and crisis sub-boards every venue needs; the documentation pack your insurance carrier asks for at renewal; the procurement-side category match an ADA Officer recognizes; and 24/48-hour deployment as a printed poster. Google Translate is a tool; TinkyTown is the infrastructure that uses translation as one feature among many.

Dedicated AAC tablets (the $8,000–$15,000 prescription devices like Tobii Dynavox, Tobii I-Series, or PRC Accent) are personal assistive devices for people with permanent speech impairments. They are owned by the individual, configured to the individual, and travel with the individual. TinkyTown is the opposite: it is a venue-side communication system that anyone can use without prescription, prior setup, or ownership.

The two are complementary — a Tobii Dynavox user can still use TinkyTown when their device is being repaired or when they walk into a counter without it.