The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is pleased to announce the release of a webinar setting out ways to increase accessibility in school facilities for individuals with disabilities, including students, family members, teachers, and staff. The webinar, developed by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in consultation with OCR, lays out common accessibility problems found in schools and ways to address them.
OCR regularly receives complaints alleging that school facilities are inaccessible to individuals with disabilities in violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities. Over the past 18 months, in response to OCR investigations, more than 90 school districts and institutions of higher education have entered into binding resolution agreements to improve access to their facilities for individuals with disabilities. When fully complied with, the agreements, each tailored to the allegations of the complaint, will ensure that students, employees, and other people with disabilities have access to spaces such as classrooms, restrooms, playgrounds, auditoriums, stadiums, parking spaces, and other school-related facilities.
The webinar and a press release describing the webinar are available on the Justice Department’s website. Examples of OCR’s resolution agreements
and more information about the federal laws prohibiting discrimination against individuals with disabilities by educational institutions are available on OCR’s website.
