U.S. Department
of Justice
Disability Rights Cases
Wisconsin Department of Corrections
On September 30, 2024, the Justice Department entered into a settlement agreement under Title II of the ADA with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WDOC) to ensure that incarcerated individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing have equal access to WDOC’s programs, services, and activities, including educational, counseling, medical, recreational, and prison employment programs. Under the agreement, WDOC will provide inmates with hearing disabilities appropriate auxiliary aids and services, such as sign language interpreters, video telephones, visual notification systems, and hearing aids. WDOC will also develop individualized communication assessments and plans; provide training on the ADA to staff; and pay $15,000 to compensate three incarcerated individuals who were harmed.
Tidewater Community College
On May 6, 2021 the United States executed a settlement agreement with Tidewater Community College under Title II of the ADA regarding its program access, as part of the Section's Veterans Access Program. The agreement ensures veterans and other individuals with disabilities will have access to education programs, services, facilities, and activities at Tidewater Community College, which is comprised of 1/3 military and veteran students, and has the largest African American undergraduate enrollment in Virginia.
Volusia County School Board
On August 2, 2021, the United States executed a settlement agreement with the Volusia County School Board on behalf of the Volusia County School District (VCS) under Title II of the ADA. The settlement agreement resolved allegations that the district punished students with disabilities for their disability-related behavior and denied them equal access to VCS’ programs and services through unnecessary removals from the classroom. Under the agreement, VCS will revise and implement policies and practices to comply with the ADA, particularly those relating to attendance and removals, discipline, law enforcement involvement, and behavioral interventions and supports, provide staff training on the ADA, retain an outside behavioral supports consultant, and establish an ADA complaint procedure and tracking system.
On March 20, 2024, the United States announced a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with VCS to extend the term of the 2021 settlement agreement by two years. The MOA also amends the settlement agreement to require VCS to take additional critical steps to achieve compliance with the ADA. Under the agreement, VCS will implement a robust training program, as well as new procedures that govern law enforcement contact with students with disabilities and ensure that students receive appropriate behavioral supports.
Individuals with information related to the department’s investigation and the district’s compliance with the settlement agreement are encouraged to report such information by email at vcs.compliance@usdoj.gov.
Lincoln Public Schools
On August 15, 2024, the United States filed a Complaint and proposed Consent Decree to resolve allegations that Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) violates Title II of the ADA by denying some deaf and hard of hearing students an equal opportunity to attend their neighborhood schools or participate in the high school choice program. The Complaint alleges that until 2024, LPS applied a blanket policy requiring students believed to need American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation to attend cluster schools serving deaf and hard of hearing students. Under the proposed Consent Decree, LPS has agreed to pay $12,000 to compensate individuals the policy harmed; end its blanket policy of requiring deaf and hard of hearing students believed to need ASL to attend a cluster school; adopt non-discrimination policies and complaint procedures; designate an ADA coordinator; train staff and provide reports to the department during a monitoring period.
D.P. et al. v. School Board of Palm Beach County
On June 26, 2023, the Department of Justice filed a Statement of Interest in D.P., et al. v. School Board of Palm Beach County. This private lawsuit was brought against the county school board, including its police department, on behalf of parents/guardians and their children with disabilities like Autism and other emotional or behavioral disabilities. The children were removed from school by police officers under a state mental health law after experiencing disability-related behavioral episodes. One of the lawsuit’s claims is that the school board discriminated against the children in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act when it did not reasonably modify its behavioral response while interacting with and removing the children from school. The Department filed the Statement of Interest to clarify that public entities like school boards have an obligation under the ADA to reasonably modify their behavioral response even if the child has not made a request for such modifications during a disability-related behavioral episode. The Statement also explains why the modifications sought in this case are not a fundamental alteration.
Dear Colleague Letter on Online Accessibility at Postsecondary Institutions
On May 19, 2023, the Justice Department and the Department of Education jointly issued a Dear Colleague Letter reminding colleges, universities, and other postsecondary institutions to ensure that their online services, programs, and activities are accessible to people with disabilities. Many colleges, universities, and other postsecondary institutions increasingly rely on their websites and third-party online platforms to provide services, programs, and activities to members of the public. This includes courses on learning platforms as well as podcasts and videos on social media and third-party platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. This joint letter reiterates that Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act require colleges, universities, and other postsecondary institutions to provide equal opportunities to people with disabilities in all their operations. The letter also highlights recent web accessibility enforcement activities and technical assistance from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
Minnesota Department of Corrections
On September 30, 2022, the Justice Department issued a Letter of Findings against the Minnesota Department of Corrections (MNDOC) under Title II of the ADA after investigating complaints alleging that the state prison system discriminates against incarcerated individuals with disabilities in its General Educational Development (GED) program. The Department found that the MNDOC fails to provide incarcerated individuals with disabilities with necessary reasonable modifications during GED courses and practice tests and denies them opportunities to obtain accommodations during GED exams. This includes individuals with learning disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, vision impairments, and mental health disabilities. On February 14, 2023, the Justice Department filed its complaint and proposed consent decree to resolve its findings. The MNDOC agreed to revise its policies, train personnel and educate incarcerated individuals on these revised policies and the ADA, hire an agency-wide ADA Compliance Officer and designate facility-level ADA and education coordinators, conduct a corrective action review, and provide regular reports to the Department. The MNDOC will also pay over $70,000 in compensatory damages to aggrieved individuals with disabilities. The court approved the consent decree on March 7, 2023
Educational Testing Services
On December 19, 2022, the U.S Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey reached a settlement agreement under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with Educational Testing Service (ETS) regarding multiple allegations by individuals with disabilities (including learning disabilities, ADHD, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, a vision disabilities) that ETS violated the ADA with respect to its testing accommodations process and procedures. The agreement commits ETS to revised policies, practices, and procedures; train staff and online proctors; and pay compensatory damages to the complainants.
U.S. v. Regents of the University of California
On Nov. 21, 2022, the United States filed its Complaint and proposed Consent Decree to resolve allegations that the Regents of the University of California on behalf of the University of California, Berkeley (collectively, UC Berkeley) violates Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. UC Berkeley makes conferences, lectures, sporting events, and other University events available to the public on its websites and other online platforms, including its YouTube and Apple Podcasts channels. It also makes courses available on its UC BerkeleyX platform. The Complaint alleges that much of UC Berkeley's free online content is inaccessible to individuals with hearing, vision, and manual disabilities. Under the Consent Decree, UC Berkeley will make all future and the vast majority of its existing online content accessible to people with disabilities. UC Berkeley will also revise its policies, train personnel, designate a web accessibility coordinator, conduct accessibility testing of its content, and hire an independent auditor. The Consent Decree resolves the Department's findings issued in its letter on August 30, 2016. The court approved the consent decree on December 2, 2022.
New York University
On November 22, 2022, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York entered into a settlement agreement with New York University pursuant to Title III of the ADA. The settlement agreement resolves a compliance review regarding NYU's appropriate accessible housing at its various campus housing facilities. The agreement increases the accessibility of NYU’s student housing facilities for individuals with disabilities, and covers all of NYU’s student housing facilities in the New York metropolitan area. NYU has agreed to prepare a plan under which it will survey and make alterations to its student housing facilities within five years, update its student housing emergency preparedness plans, and improve the accessibility information related to student housing on its website.
St. Vrain Valley School District
On July 20, 2022, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado entered into a settlement agreement with the St. Vrain Valley School District pursuant to Title II of the ADA. The settlement agreement resolved a complaint that the school district failed to provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services for meetings between school personnel and a deaf parent of a student in the school district that were initiated by the school district. The agreement requires the school district to comply with the ADA's effective communication requirements, to have in place a system for providing qualified interpreters, training, reporting, and the payment of compensatory damages.
Dunlap Community Unit School District No. 323
On October 28, 2021, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois entered into a Title II of the ADA settlement agreement with the Dunlap Community Unit School District regarding its failure to ensure that its playground areas at a school were readily accessible to and usable by a student with disabilities. The settlement agreement requires the school district to design and construct a new playground at the facility that meets the requirements of the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design.