One year after a federal judge ordered Chicago to install more accessible crosswalk signals for impaired pedestrians, a court-appointed monitor found the city has met the minimum requirements by installing 78 new signals.
But the monitor, in its first-year report published July 1, also found that none of Chicago’s accessible signals — with their distinctive audible beeping — are compliant with federal standards.
“They’re usable. But they’re not as effective as they can and should be,” says Rachel M. Weisberg, directing attorney at Disability Rights Advocates, which filed the original lawsuit in 2019 that led to court-appointed monitor Michael G. Shaw being named in June 2025.
The signals, when pressed, beep when it’s safe to cross for blind and vision-impaired pedestrians. The buttons also vibrate to alert hearing-impaired pedestrians of a signal change.
The standards for the crosswalks, called accessible pedestrian signals, are determined by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. The manual sets the technical specifications from everything from the height of button placement to the signal’s distance from the curb, Weisberg said.
Besides failing the technical requirements, the monitor found that many devices were not functioning properly or required maintenance.
The city has work to do on that end, Weisberg said. But the city has made substantial progress at identifying and constructing accessible signals at crosswalks across the city.
In the first year under court supervision, the monitor found:
- The city installed 78 accessible pedestrian signals, eight more than what the court required. The requirements ramp up in the coming years. The city is required to build signals at 110 intersections in the second year of the judge’s remedial order.
- The city now has accessible signals at 165 intersections — only 6.5% of the city’s 2,800 total intersections.
- The Chicago Department of Transportation “demonstrated exemplary efforts” in following the judge’s order, and has drafted an accessible pedestrian signal policy and has built several accessible signals at intersections requested by the public.
The spokesperson for the Transportation Department, which oversees the installation of accessible signals, did not immediately have a comment on the monitor’s report, but pointed to a June news release about the new accessible signals.
Since 2019, the city has built accessible signals at all intersection reconstruction projects, the release states.
“This significant expansion of Accessible Pedestrian Signals is about making our streets more inclusive and ensuring residents who are blind or have low vision can travel more independently in every neighborhood,” Mayor Brandon Johnson was quoted as saying in the release. His office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The city has website, chicagoaps.org/, with a map of Chicago’s accessible intersections. The site also has a form for residents to request new accessible signals.
U.S. District Judge LaShona Hunt placed the city under a remedial order in March 2025, aiming to resolve a lawsuit filed six years ago by the American Council of the Blind of Metropolitan Chicago.
The lawsuit accused the city of violating the Americans for Disabilities Act by failing to build signalized street intersections with accessible pedestrian signals.
The order mandates the city to install the devices at at least 71% of signaled intersections by the end of 2035, and five additional years to hit the 100% mark.
For years, Chicago officials talked about launching pilot programs to address the scarcity of accessible signals, Weisberg said. She’s heartened to see the city finally taking the issue seriously.
Other cities have been slow to adopt accessible signals. New York City lost a lawsuit in 2022 that claimed it violated the Americans for Disabilities Act because it lacked accessible signals at 95% of its intersections. That city is now under a similar court order.
Disability Rights Advocates filed another lawsuit last year alleging the city has not done enough to improve the accessibility of its sidewalks and curbs.
With time, Chicago could become a model for accessible infrastructure, Weisberg said.
“The hope is that Chicago can be a leader to support the blind and vision-impaired community,” she said.