Nearly 3,000 Chicago intersections are equipped with visual crossing signals, yet fewer than three dozen include audible cues. In a landmark victory for blind residents challenging the accessibility of a major city's signalized crosswalks, a federal judge in March ruled in a class-action lawsuit that such disparity violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.
After a retinal disease left him legally blind, architect John Gleichman was struck by a taxicab while walking home near Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo -- at the same intersection where a 4-year-old girl was killed by a hit-and-run driver years earlier.
"Every time I go out to go downtown for a meeting, I have to think I could get hit today and not make it home," said Gleichman, 65, who has been struck four times by vehicles while navigating the city with his white cane since being diagnosed as legally blind in 2005. He considers himself fortunate to have escaped serious injury each time.
by signing up you agree to our terms of service Accessible pedestrian signals, known as APS, have been around for decades, though the technology has evolved.
"That kind of made it dawn on me," said Murillo, who produces a radio show for The Chicago Lighthouse and writes a blog on issues facing the blind community."I thought, 'Oh, so that's what it is. They're there for people like me.'" Advocates for Chicago's blind residents say they pushed the city for years to add APS with little success before taking legal action.
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