SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAN AND THE CITY OF WAUKEGAN, ILLINOIS UNDER THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND RECOVERY

21. If the City of Waukegan contracts with another entity, such as the American Red Cross or another local government, to provide its emergency preparedness plans and emergency response services, the City of Waukegan will ensure that the other entity complies with the following provisions on its behalf.

22. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that it regularly solicits and incorporates input from persons with a variety of disabilities and disability advocates regarding all phases of its emergency preparedness plan (preparation, notification, response, and clean-up).

23. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that its community evacuation plans enable those who have mobility impairments, vision impairments, hearing impairments, cognitive disabilities, mental illness, or other disabilities to safely self-evacuate or be evacuated by others. Some communities are instituting voluntary, confidential registries of persons with disabilities who may need individualized evacuation assistance or notification. If the City of Waukegan adopts or maintains such a registry, its report to the Department will discuss its procedures for ensuring voluntariness, appropriate confidentiality controls, and how the registry will be kept updated, as well as its outreach plan to inform persons with disabilities of its availability. Whether or not a registry is used, the City of Waukegan plan should address accessible transportation needs for persons with disabilities.

24. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that if its emergency warning systems use sirens or other audible alerts, it will also provide ways to inform persons with hearing impairments of an impending disaster. The use of auto-dialed TTY messages to pre-registered individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, text messaging, e-mails, open-captioning on local TV stations and other innovative uses of technology may be incorporated into such procedures, as well as lower-tech options such as dispatching qualified sign language interpreters to assist with emergency TV broadcasts.

25. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that at least 1 emergency shelter has a back-up generator and a way to keep medications refrigerated (such as a refrigerator or a cooler with ice). Such shelter(s) will be made available to persons whose disabilities require access to electricity and refrigeration, for example, for using life-sustaining medical devices, providing power to motorized wheelchairs, and preserving certain medications, such as insulin, that require refrigeration. The written procedures will include a plan for notifying persons of the location of such shelter(s).

26. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that persons who use service animals are not separated from their service animals when sheltering during an emergency, even if pets are normally prohibited in shelters. The procedures will not unnecessarily segregate persons who use service animals from others but may take into account the potential presence of persons who, for safety or health reasons, should not be in contact with certain types of animals.

27. Some of the City’s emergency shelters may be owned or operated by other public entities subject to title II or by public accommodations subject to title III and, as such, are subject to the obligation to provide program access or remove barriers to accessibility under the ADA. This Agreement does not limit such future enforcement action against the owners or operators of these facilities by any person or entity, including the Department.

28. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will request in writing that the each of the owners and operators of the shelter facilities listed in Attachment E will remove the noted barriers to access for persons with disabilities. The request will specify that the remediation be completed within one year of the effective date of this Agreement. The City of Waukegan will simultaneously send a courtesy copy of the request to the Department.

29. Within fourteen months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will survey the shelters listed in Attachment E to determine whether the noted barriers have been removed. If not all barriers have been removed, the City of Waukegan will identify within 18 months of the effective date of this Agreement an appropriate number of alternate shelters where the parking, exterior routes, entrances, interior routes to the shelter area, and toilet rooms to the shelter area comply with the Standards.

30. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement and until all emergency shelters have accessible parking, exterior routes, entrances, interior routes to the shelter area, and toilet rooms serving the shelter area, the City of Waukegan will identify and widely publicize to the public and to persons with disabilities and organizations that serve them the most accessible emergency shelters.

31. To the extent that the City of Waukegan provides opportunities for post-emergency temporary housing to its residents, within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, it will develop, implement, and report to the Department its plans for providing equivalent opportunities for accessible post-emergency temporary housing to persons with disabilities. Within one year of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will ensure that information it makes available regarding temporary housing includes information on accessible housing (such as accessible hotel rooms within the community or in nearby communities) that could be used if people with disabilities cannot immediately return home after a disaster if, for instance, necessary accessible features such as ramps or electrical systems have been compromised.