11-30-2022 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 INTRODUCTION Twenty-six percent of adults in the United States have some type of disability. Just under fourteen percent have mobility issues. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The state of Minnesota has the highest disability gap in voter turnout in the country with a gap of -19.5% between voters with and without disabilities. Fact Sheet: Disability and Voter Turnout 2018 Elections/Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. The Representative Government position of the League of Women Voters of the United States (LWVUS) supports the right of citizens to participate in government decision-making. LWVUS has joined with other organizations in advocating to ensure participation includes Americans with disabilities in all aspects of society through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in several areas, including employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications and access to state and local government programs and services. An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. The League works particularly hard to monitor voting rights. League members serve as volunteer poll watchers checking on physical accessibility required by the ADA and work to fight restrictive voter ID measures that disproportionately affect people with disabilities. https://www.lwv.org/blog/how-league-helps-ensure-voting-access-americans-disabilities STUDY GOAL The purpose of this study is to assess the compliance level of the section of the ADA that guarantees access to public buildings and sites in the five cities included in the League of Women Voters of Roseville Area (Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Little Canada, Maplewood, and Roseville) with the ADA. The study examines compliance policy, administration, and accessibility by residents who are mobility challenged to government buildings, polling locations, and city recreational venues such as parks and playgrounds. Focus is on the significant areas of compliance, identification of instances of non-compliance, and considerations for the cities to bring ADA deficiencies into compliance as soon as reasonably practicable. While the ADA protects the rights of all people with impairments, the study group chose to limit its examination to whether people with mobility disabilities can participate in local government, vote, and access city-established parks and recreational facilities. Disabilities such as people who have blind or deaf challenges may be studied at some other time.