A federal judge ruled that the city of Chicago violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide accessible signals to blind pedestrians at city crosswalks, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
The lawsuit was initially filed against the city in September 2019 by plaintiffs Ann Brash, Ray Campbell, and Maureen Heneghan and the American Council of the Blind of Metropolitan Chicago.
The U.S. government joined the case in April 2021. It became a class-action suit in March 2022, with the plaintiff class being any blind or low-vision individual using a pedestrian intersection with signals.
The federal government argued that Chicago did not provide non-visual equivalents to visual walking cues at intersections.
These alternate signals for the visually impaired can include tactile surfaces, and audible cues such as messages and tones.
While the city had acknowledged the need for accessible pedestrian signals going back as far as 2006, by April 2021 less than 1% of the 2,841 city crosswalks equipped with visual signals had options for use by those who cannot see, according to the Justice Department.
“In total, despite fifteen years of planning, projections, assurances, and the receipt of federal funds, no more than thirty of the City’s intersections had been equipped with APS [by April 2021],” the judge’s memorandum stated.
A March 2022 plan by the city to install 150 more accessible pedestrian signals was no more successful than previous efforts. By January 2023, only 33 of 2,846 intersections citywide had the blind-accessible signals, and only nine signals had been installed under the 2022 plan.
Of those nine accessible pedestrian signals, eight were new and one was a renovation, according to WTTW-TV, a Chicago PBS affiliate.
On Friday, Judge Elaine Bucklo of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled in favor of the private plaintiffs, represented collectively by nonprofit disability rights legal center Disability Rights Advocates, as well as the United States.
Chicago will now be required to install accessible pedestrian signals across the city, although a timeline for the upgrades has not been established.
The U.S. government, however, is barred from seeking damages arising from conduct by Chicago before April 15, 2018, due to a three-year statute of limitations.
“With accessible pedestrian signals, us blind and visually impaired people will be able to cross streets much more safely, with less stress, and with more independence,” Ms. Heneghan said in a Disability Rights Advocates release.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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