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 it inspected — with their distinctive audible beeping — are fully compliant with current 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 — 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.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, through a spokesperson, noted that the city increased its accessible intersections by 90% over the past year and is committed to achieving “full operational compliance.”
“While this work is still in its early stages and efforts to address technical deficiencies in current signals continue to come online, we are building strong momentum as we expand accessible infrastructure and create safer, more inclusive streets for all residents,” Johnson’s office said.
Blind from birth, Peter Tucic remembers when there were only a handful of accessible signals downtown, near the Illinois Tech campus and on the Near West Side near the Chicago Lighthouse, an advocacy group for the vision-impaired where he serves as vice president of public policy.
He said the new batch of accessible signals have “benefited [him] immensely.” But he has noticed the placement of the signals lacks consistency, and can make it harder for him to find them with his cane.
“From my travel, there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for the height [of the button] or the volume,” Tucic said.
Those inconsistencies can make it challenging to know where the signal buttons are, he said.
“They are retrofitting” most of the intersections, he said. “At times, these don’t have uniform placement.”
The city has a 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.
Other cities have also 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.
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.