Proskauer is proud to share a significant victory in our long-standing advocacy for the rights of blind and visually impaired pedestrians in Chicago. On May 29, 2025, the Honorable Judge LaShonda A. Hunt of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered a comprehensive Remedial Plan Order requiring the City of Chicago to install Accessible Pedestrian Signals (“APS”) at 71% of its signalized intersections with pedestrian signals within 10 years and at all remaining signalized intersections with pedestrian signals by December 31, 2040. This Remedial Plan Order follows years of litigation and advocacy by Proskauer in partnership with Disability Rights Advocates (“DRA”), a nationwide nonprofit disability rights legal center, and marks a monumental step forward in ensuring that Chicago’s pedestrian infrastructure is accessible to all. American Council of the Blind of Metropolitan Chicago, et al. v. City of Chicago, No. 1:19-cv-06322 (N.D. Ill.).
Disability Rights Advocates
Proskauer Secures Class Certification for Visually Impaired Chicagoans
By Nigel F. Telman & Edward Young on
Earlier this month, Proskauer – along with co-counsel Disability Rights Advocates (“DRA”), a nationwide nonprofit disability rights legal center – obtained class certification in an important litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, brought on behalf of pedestrians with visual disabilities in the metropolitan Chicago…
Proskauer Achieves Landmark Special Education Settlement in New Jersey State Prisons
By Russell T. Gorkin on
Proskauer recently reached a landmark agreement with the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) and Department of Education (NJDOE) to ensure that students entitled to special education services in NJDOC custody will receive those services to which they are legally entitled under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504), and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This settlement is consistent with Proskauer’s long-standing commitment to provide legal services to some of the country’s most vulnerable communities.
Defending Visually-Impaired Pedestrians in Chicago with Disability Rights Advocates
By Nigel F. Telman, Edward Young & Hannah Morris on
Earlier this week, Proskauer—along with Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a nationwide nonprofit disability rights legal center—filed a putative class action against the City of Chicago on behalf of the American Council of the Blind of Metropolitan Chicago (ACBMC) and three individual plaintiffs with vision-related disabilities. The suit challenges the City’s systemic failure to provide accessible crosswalk signals for people who have significant vision impairments—a failure which violates both Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act.
The complaint alleges that only 11 out of Chicago’s 2,670 intersections have accessible pedestrian signals (APS) which provide information to the visually-impaired. As a result, pedestrians with vision-related disabilities can safely cross fewer than half of one percent of Chicago’s intersections. In addition to placing visually-impaired Chicagoans in ongoing physical danger, the City’s failure to address these inadequacies represents continuing violations of federal law which requires, among other things, that public entities operate “each service, program, or activity” so that they are “readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.” 28 C.F.R. § 35.150.