Hot Alert – November 16, 2015
NEW HOT ALERT – NOVEMBER 16, 2015 – DOJ Agreement
DOJ announced 11/16 an agreement with McLennan County, TX, to improve access to all aspects of civic life for people with disabilities. The agreement was reached under its Project Civic Access (PCA), the Department’s wide-ranging initiative to ensure that cities, towns and counties throughout the country comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The 3-year agreement requires the County to make physical modifications to facilities to ensure that its buildings, parking lots, routes into buildings, entrances, parks, public restrooms, and courthouses are accessible to persons with disabilities.
The County also agreed to amend its employment policies to comply with Title I of the ADA; provide effective communication for individuals who have hearing or visual disabilities; and ensure that its emergency management procedures and policies include provisions for the evacuation of persons with disabilities.
Notably, this agreement requires the County to ensure that the County’s official website and other web-based services conform to industry guidelines – the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 – for making web content accessible to persons with disabilities.
Finally, the County will ensure that its polling locations are accessible to persons with disabilities.