Urban Institute report- Barriers at Every Step

The report, Barriers at Every Step, shows the level of discrimination faced by two groups in the Chicago metropolitan area:

Persons who are deaf and use a telephone relay service to inquire about a rental unit and

Persons using wheelchairs who visit a rental provider in person.

The Urban Institute’s analysis of 200 paired tests have the following three key findings:

Landlords who advertised units for rent refused to speak to deaf persons in one-of-four calls, while non-disabled callers were given information about the units.

For both deaf persons and wheelchair users that were able to get some information, they did not receive the same level of encouragement as non-disabled persons in a quarter of the tests.

The majority of landlords agree to requests of reasonable accommodation and reasonable modification. Nonetheless, about 19 percent of landlords refused a request for a reasonable accommodation and 16 percent said they would not permit a reasonable modification.