A federal judge has approved a settlement Monday that will make it easier for Oregonians with disabilities to get around.
Related: ODOT Reaches Settlement Over Disability Rights
The agreement, which calls for more curb ramps and accessible pedestrian signals along state roads and highways, is between the Oregon Department of Transportation and Disability Rights Oregon.
You’ve probably seen curb ramps. They’re yellow and usually have little bumps on them to assist people with disabilities moving from the road onto the sidewalk.
According to Disability Rights Oregon, there are 16,938 places where there should be curb ramps in Oregon. But in 15,270 of those places, a ramp either needs to be installed or updated in order to meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
For Tom Stenson, an attorney with Disability Rights Oregon, the settlement is a welcome change.
“The full promise of the ADA, even now, 27 years later, still hasn’t been realized," he said. "Because there are a lot of facilities, there a lot of places that are not being updated and improved the way that they should be under the law.”
ODOT doesn’t know the full scope of the problem yet.
With over 8,000 miles of state highways, there are a lot of intersections to track. ODOT officials said they're going to finish an inventory of curb ramps and pedestrian across the state highway system by the end of this year.
ODOT has also promised to spend $5 million on immediate fixes in high-priority intersections over the next year. Starting in 2018, they’ll be putting $18 million toward the efforts over the course of the next four years.
Under the settlement, all of the accessibility problems need to be fixed by the end of 2032. There are other check-ins on the timeline as well. Thirty percent of the curb ramps will be fixed by 2022. And by 2027, three quarters will be finished.
ODOT spokesperson Tom Fuller said the agency is actually excited about the settlement “because it allows us to put our scarce transportation resources into the transportation system rather than into the courtrooms and the attorneys’ fees.”
Stenson said there are a lot of people with disabilities living in Oregon who will be helped by this settlement.
And some Oregonians with disabilities may have a long wait — up to 15 years — for the fixes they need, according to Stenson.
But Fuller said ODOT is working to quickly address the most problematic intersections in the state.