Category: News

On June 9, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a letter finding that Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, is in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to make stations for which it is responsible physically accessible to persons with mobility disabilities by the deadline in the ADA of July 26, 2010. That is, currently only 18 out of nearly 400 Amtrak stations are accessible.

The US DOJ entered into a settlement agreement with Ahoid U.S.A., Inc. and Peapod, LLC to correct alleged violations to the ADA and making goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations offered through a company website and mobile applications accessible to individuals with disabilities.

On October 8, 2014, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the nation’s leading advocate for equal access by the blind to information and technology, and three individuals have reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education that will make student loan information accessible to blind Americans. The agreement commits the Department of Education and the student loan servicers with which it contracts to make websites, forms, and documents related to the department’s Direct Loan program equally accessible to blind applicants and borrowers.

The Justice Department announced today it has published a new technical assistance publication about federal laws that protect the rights of voters with disabilities, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement with the City of North Las Vegas, Nevada to resolve allegations that the City violated the ADA by failing to accommodate, and constructively discharging, a Parks Department Maintenance Crew Leader with monocular vision. The Department alleged that the City unjustifiably revoked the employee’s long standing reasonable accommodation, which exempted him from obtaining a Commercial Driver’s License. The consent decree, which must be approved by the Court, requires the City to pay the employee compensatory damages, provide training on Title I of the ADA, and file periodic reports with the Department.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires local governments to provide accessible on-street parking in the absence of regulatory design specifications for on-street parking facilities, the Ninth U.S, Circuit Court rules Friday, September 5, 2014.

Since the advent of the digital age, the job application process is almost entirely conducted online. Wendy Strobel-Gower, Director of the Northeast ADA Center, contributed a blog post on the importance of making online application systems accessible to all job applicants, including people with disabilities. Wendy explains how accessible online application systems are one way to meet the requirements laid out in the final regulations for implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and lists some of the best resources for making these accommodations.

On July 23, 2014, the Attorney General signed the Department’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to revise the Department’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) title III regulation to require movie theaters to exhibit movies with closed movie captioning and audio …

Department of Justice Announces a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Movie Theaters, Movie Captioning and Audio Description Read more »

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit here yesterday against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., alleging that the giant retailer fired an intellectually disabled employee at a Rockford Walmart store after it rescinded his workplace accommodation.

Last month, a California district court reaffirmed that Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“Title III”) does not require a public accommodation to offer accessible goods (i.e. videos with captioning) as part of its inventory. In Jancik v. Redbox Automated Retail, LLC, No. SACV 13-1387-DOC, 2014 WL 1920751 (C.D. Cal. May 14, 2014), a deaf individual claimed that Redbox violated Title III by not making more closed-captioned videos available at its DVD rental kiosks, despite his requests.