Welcome to the Washington Connection, the legislative and information service of the American Council of the Blind. The Washington Connection is brought to you by the ACB national office. If you have any questions or comments on the information provided, don’t hesitate to contact us and ask to speak with Swatha Nandhakumar.
The Washington Connection is updated any time we have new information to share with you. The following articles are available as of August 27, 2024. Messages 2, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are new.
- Justice Department Secures Landmark Agreement with Los Angeles County to Increase Accessibility for Voters with Disabilities
- New! Justice Department to Monitor Compliance with Federal Voting Rights Laws in Alaska
- Justice Department to Monitor Compliance with Federal Voting Rights Laws in Arizona
- Justice Department to Monitor Compliance with Federal Voting Rights Laws in Michigan
- New! Department of Transportation and Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines
- New! Access Board and AI
- New! New Advocacy and Governmental Affairs Page
- New! Website and Software Application Accessibility Act: ACB Needs Your Stories
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Justice Department Secures Landmark Agreement with Los Angeles County to Increase Accessibility for Voters with Disabilities
WASHINGTON, August 1, 2024 – The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a landmark agreement with the County of Los Angeles to resolve its lawsuit alleging that the county violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by denying voters with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate in its voting programs, services and activities when it failed to select and use facilities as polling places that are accessible to persons with disabilities.
“People with disabilities are entitled to full inclusion at the ballot box,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is committed to safeguarding the right of every eligible voter, including voters with disabilities, to participate in our electoral process. This agreement should send a message to officials across the country regarding the need to ensure the accessibility of the voting process now.”
“The right to vote is essential to our democracy and must be protected for all voters,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. “Voters with disabilities are entitled to an equal opportunity to vote in person, privately and independently, alongside their neighbors and friends. We commend Los Angeles County for its commitment to work with the Justice Department to ensure equal access for individuals with disabilities.”
The lawsuit was filed in June 2023 following a lengthy investigation that found the county excluded individuals with disabilities from participating in the county’s in-person voting program. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California had surveyed hundreds of polling places in the June 2016, March 2020, November 2020 and November 2022 elections and found the vast majority had architectural barriers, such as steep ramps, abrupt level changes at walkways and entrance doors, and lack of accessible parking. These impediments prevented people with mobility and vision disabilities from being able to safely access vote centers and cast their ballots in person. The lawsuit also alleged that the county’s curbside voting program was inaccessible, as certain vote centers lacked signage indicating that curbside voting was available or failed to provide sufficient means by which a voter could contact an election worker for assistance with curbside voting.
The settlement, which was filed with the court earlier today, will increase accessibility for voters with disabilities. Under the agreement, Los Angeles County will work with an independent accessibility expert for three years on site selection policies and procedures to ensure that the county selects voting center locations that are accessible or can be made more accessible during the voting period by employing temporary remedial measures. The county has agreed to work with the expert and the department to implement the expert’s recommendations. The expert will provide semiannual reports on their findings to the county and the department.
With more than 500 political districts and approximately 4.3 million registered voters, Los Angeles County is the largest election jurisdiction in the nation.
The Los Angeles County investigation is part of the department’s ADA Voting Initiative, which focuses on protecting the voting rights of individuals with disabilities across the country. More information about voting and elections is available at www.justice.gov/voting. For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit www.justice.gov/crt. For more information on the ADA, please call the department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 1-800-514-0301 (TTY 1-833-610-1264) or visit www.ada.gov. If you believe you have been discriminated against based on disability, please submit a report at www.civilrights.justice.gov.
Justice Department to Monitor Compliance with Federal Voting Rights Laws in Alaska
WASHINGTON, August 19, 2024 – The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in certain jurisdictions in the State of Alaska for the Aug. 20 primary election. The department will assign federal observers to monitor in Bethel Census Area, Dillingham Census Area, Kusilvak Census Area, Nome Census Area and North Slope Borough, Alaska. The federal observers, permitted by court order, will monitor for compliance with the language requirements of Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, including the provision of election assistance in Yup’ik dialects.
The Justice Department enforces the federal voting rights laws that protect the rights of all citizens to access the ballot. The department regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities all across the country. In addition, the division also deploys federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, where authorized by federal court order.
The Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section, working with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, enforces the civil provisions of federal statutes that protect the right to vote, including the Voting Rights Act, National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, Civil Rights Acts and the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
More information about voting and elections is available on the Justice Department’s website at www.justice.gov/voting. Learn more about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws at www.justice.gov/crt/voting-section. Complaints about possible violations of federal voting rights laws can be submitted through the Civil Rights Division’s website at civilrights.justice.gov or by telephone at 1-800-253-3931.
Justice Department to Monitor Compliance with Federal Voting Rights Laws in Arizona
WASHINGTON, July 29, 2024 – The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in Maricopa County, Arizona, for the July 30 primary election.
The Justice Department enforces the federal voting rights laws that protect the rights of all citizens to access the ballot. The department regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities all across the country. In addition, the division also deploys federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, where authorized by federal court order.
The Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section, working with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, enforces the civil provisions of federal statutes that protect the right to vote, including the Voting Rights Act, National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, Civil Rights Act and Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
More information about voting and elections is available on the Justice Department’s website at www.justice.gov/voting. Learn more about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws at www.justice.gov/crt/voting-section. Complaints about possible violations of federal voting rights laws can be submitted through the Civil Rights Division’s website at civilrights.justice.gov or by telephone at 1-800-253-3931.
Justice Department to Monitor Compliance with Federal Voting Rights Laws in Michigan
WASHINGTON, August 5, 2024 – The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in several communities in western Michigan for the Aug. 5 primary election. The department will monitor in Allegan County (Clyde Township and the City of Fennville) and Van Buren County (Covert Township).
The Justice Department enforces the federal voting rights laws that protect the rights of all citizens to access the ballot. The department regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities all across the country. In addition, the division also deploys federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, where authorized by federal court order.
The Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section, working with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, enforces the civil provisions of federal statutes that protect the right to vote, including the Voting Rights Act, National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, Civil Rights Act and Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
More information about voting and elections is available on the Justice Department’s website at www.justice.gov/voting. Learn more about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws at www.justice.gov/crt/voting-section. Complaints about possible violations of federal voting rights laws can be submitted through the Civil Rights Division’s website at civilrights.justice.gov or by telephone at 1-800-253-3931.
Department of Transportation and Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has published a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making in the Federal Register asking DOT to fully adopt the public right-of-way accessibility guidelines (PROWAG) published by the U.S. Access Board in August of 2023. The publication by the Access Board in 2023 was the final product of a process that lasted for many years. The independent agency worked hard to develop standards that will make access to public transit fully accessible for transit users with disabilities. The standards look at things like accessible pathways to enter transit stops, detectable warning strips at transit stops, and accessible transit shelters. The new regulations will only apply to newly constructed and altered public transit stops. The regulations cannot go into effect until they are adopted by the Department of Transportation.
Now that it has been published in the Federal Register, all Americans have the right to provide comments on the new regulations. Comments will be taken until September 23. The notice can be found at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/08/22/2024-18496/transportation-for-individuals-with-disabilities-adoption-of-accessibility-standards-for-pedestrian. The American Council of the Blind will carefully review the new regulations and provide feedback to best advocate for the blind and low vision community.
Access Board Hearings on Artificial Intelligence
On August 8th, the U.S. Access Board held two public hearings on artificial intelligence and its opportunities and challenges for the disability community. The hearings included panel discussions with members of the disability community, including representatives from prominent disability organizations like the American Association of People with Disabilities, National Disability Institute, American Foundation for the Blind, and the Disability Rights Office of the Center for Democracy and Technology. Speakers highlighted the benefits of AI and the ways that it was being used to the benefit of people with disabilities.
Apps like Seeing AI and Be My AI were referred to as game-changers for the blind and low-vision community, and there is work on creating an AI-based ASL interpretation device for both deaf and hearing individuals to be able to interact with greater ease.
Autonomous vehicles were also mentioned as a positive. Speakers also discussed the potential negatives of AI and its potential to show bias against disabled individuals. They emphasized the need for inclusion of the disability community at the outset of AI technology development both in ensuring that the technology is accessible and beneficial for users with disabilities, and in how the AI is trained and the sorts of data it receives. AI, especially when used in hiring employees or assessing employee productivity, must be trained to accommodate the differences in how someone with a disability may interview or work with assistive technology or other adaptions, so that it does not unintentionally screen out candidates or flag otherwise productive employees for termination or disciplinary action. AI in AVs must be able to detect pedestrians with mobility aids and wheelchairs as well to keep them as safe as non-disabled pedestrians.
The hearing ended with a call from the Access Board for comments from the public. Comments must be 300 words or fewer and are due on October 31st. Submit comments by email to [email protected].
New Advocacy and Governmental Affairs Page
ACB recently launched a revised advocacy page on www.acb.org. ACB carries out a myriad of advocacy projects at the federal level. This includes activities such as drafting comments in response to federal notices, or writing letters to Congressional agencies to advocate for important legislation.
The new webpage, https://www.acb.org/advocacy-governmental-affairs, outlines different areas of advocacy ACB is engaged in. We have shared different documents we have either written ourselves or signed onto as a supporting organization. As you peruse the different documents, you can better understand the plethora of advocacy ACB engages in. A link to the federal Congressional website, at www.congress.gov, is also provided so visitors can learn more about Congressional activity.
Website and Software Application Accessibility Act: ACB Needs Your Stories
We have a Hill meeting coming up soon where we are talking about the Website and Software Application Accessibility Act. As a membership organization, we hope to bring concrete stories from the blind and low vision community. If you have a specific story where you needed to visit a specific website and could not access it because of the inaccessibility of the site, please consider sharing that story with us.
We know there are so many stories out there, and many of us can appropriately make broad generalizations. However, for this activity, the more specific the better. Additionally, details about the situation would be helpful to paint a picture of the problems such inaccessibility brings about.
For instance, perhaps you were trying to apply for a job and the online application was inaccessible. As a result, you did not get the job. Or, you needed to purchase a specific item online for your child and the online store was inaccessible. As a result, you had to get help to purchase the essential item. These are the kind of stories we are looking for. If you have any questions, please reach out. Stories can be sent to [email protected].