The Justice Department today announced a settlement agreement with Nueces County, Texas (County), to improve access to all aspects of civic life for people with disabilities. The agreement was reached under Project Civic Access, the department’s wide-ranging initiative to ensure that cities, towns and, counties throughout the country comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Under the agreement, the County will take important steps to improve access for people with disabilities, such as: physically modifying facilities surveyed by the Department so that parking, routes into the buildings, entrances, service areas and counters, restrooms, and drinking fountains are accessible to people with disabilities; posting, publishing and distributing notices to inform members of the public of the provisions of the ADA and their applicability to the City’s programs, services and activities. Notably, under the terms of the agreement, the County will ensure that its websites and all online services, including those websites or online services provided by third parties upon which the County relies to provide services or content,comply with, at minimum, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0. The County will also officially recognize the Texas telephone relay service as a key means of communicating with individuals who are deaf, are hard-of-hearing, or have speech impairments and train staff in using the relay service for telephone communications; and, develop a method for providing information for interested persons with disabilities concerning the existence and location of the County’s accessible services, activities and programs.
Today’s agreement kicks off the Department’s activities to honor the ADA’s 25th Anniversary. Each month, the Justice Blog will highlight different ways that the ADA benefits people with disabilities. Today’s entry in the Justice Blog features information about the Nueces County settlement.
For more information about the ADA or today’s settlement agreement, please visit our ADA website at http://www.ada.gov or you may also call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383 (TDD).