Court Rules That Chicago’s Intersections Must Be Made Accessible for Blind Pedestrians

Chicago, IL—In a decision that will reshape Chicago’s pedestrian infrastructure and lead to historic accessibility improvements for all residents, a federal court has ruled that Chicago’s systemic, decades-long failure to incorporate accessible pedestrian signals (“APS”) at intersections constitutes discrimination toward blind and low vision pedestrians under federal disability rights laws. Therefore Chicago must install APS, which are push-button devices attached to crosswalks that convey visual crossing information in audible and vibro- tactile formats, when constructing or modernizing an intersection’s pedestrian signals. Read the order granting summary judgment.

Less than one half of one percent of Chicago’s 2,800+ signalized intersections provide APS for blind pedestrians. This level of access may be the worst of any major metropolitan area in the United States. As a result, blind and low vision pedestrians are put in danger of crossing against the light, in the path of cars, every time they cross a street without APS. Having APS installed at these intersections means that Plaintiffs who for years have resorted to taking circuitous routes to avoid particularly unsafe intersections, or who have avoided walking altogether, will have newfound security accessing a fundamental part of Chicago civic life: walking city streets.

Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) and Proskauer Rose LLP filed a class action lawsuit in September 2019 on behalf of American Council of the Blind of Metropolitan Chicago and three individual plaintiffs with vision-related disabilities challenging Chicago’s discriminatory practices that disregard blind and low vision safety needs during pedestrian planning. The federal Department of Justice joined the suit shortly after it was filed following its own investigation into the city’s APS-related policies and practices. In March 2022, the Court certified a class of all blind and low vision pedestrians who use Chicago’s signalized pedestrian