Frequently Asked Questions About the Minnesota Legislature

The Minnesota Legislature is committed to complying with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and supporting the goal that individuals with disabilities shall not be excluded from participating in or be denied the benefits of any program, service, or activity offered by the Legislature. The Legislature welcomes comments and suggestions on services that will improve communication between the Legislature and individuals with disabilities. Please direct comments to:

Legislative Coordinating Commission
Room 600, State Office Building
St. Paul, MN 55155.
Phone: 651-296-1121

For information on the Legislature's website accessibility, see the Website Accessibility page. If you are having accessibility or usability problems with any Minnesota Legislative website or software, please send your comments to us by using the Accessibility & Usability Comment Form.

Hearing rooms in the Minnesota Senate Building and the State Office Building are accessible to individuals using wheelchairs.

The State Capitol is wheelchair accessible except for the roof. Please see the accessibility page of the Minnesota State Capitol website for more details.

The Capitol Complex has designated parking and entrance ramps to provide easy access to the buildings, including the Minnesota Senate Building, State Office Building, and Capitol. The Minnesota State Capitol Directions and Parking page has more detailed parking information.

For individual assistance, contact:

• Minnesota State Capitol at 651-296- 2881
• Senate Sergeant at Arms at 651-296-1119 for help in the Minnesota Senate Building and Senate Chamber in the Capitol Building.
• House Sergeant's Office at 651-296-4860 for help in the State Office Building and House Chamber in the Capitol Building.

Wheelchair-accessible public access computers for using the Legislative website are available at:

• The Legislative Reference Library, 3238 Minnesota Senate Building.
• The Legislative Reference Library, 645 State Office Building.
• House Public Information Services, 175 State Office Building.

Two wheelchairs are available, courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society, at the Capitol Information and Tour Center for visitor use in the State Capitol only. Wheelchairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please contact the Minnesota Historical Society with questions: 651-259-3292.

Yes. The accessibility page on the Minnesota State Capitol website from the Minnesota Historical Society contains information such as entrances available for visitors with limited mobility and services available for visitors with hearing or visual impairment.

For more information, call: 651-259-3292
TTY: 651-282-6073
or email: statecapitol@mnhs.org.

Some Capitol area buildings are restricting visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please confirm that the building you wish to visit accepts visitors before you arrive.

Yes. Here is a list of available services.

Signs

• Raised numbers identify legislative offices and rooms in the Minnesota Senate Building and State Office Building. In addition, Braille signs are installed throughout both buildings to assist those who are visually impaired. The elevators in both buildings are equipped with control signs in Braille.

Large print

• Some of the printed material handed out in committees may be enlarged on the copying machines used by the Legislature. For assistance, contact: Legislative Coordinating Commission, 651-296-1121, Room 600, State Office Building.

Readers

• Readers for printed materials can be arranged upon request. Advance notice is necessary to insure timely assistance. For assistance, contact: Legislative Coordinating Commission, 651-296-1121, Room 600, State Office Building.

Recorded Meetings

• Committee, commission meeting, and floor session are recorded. Audio recordings from 1991 to the present are available on the Minnesota Legislature's website.
  • Legislative Media Archive from the Legislative Reference Library
  • House Audio and Video Archives
  • Senate Media Services-Senate Audio Service
• To purchase a copy of a House video please contact House Public Information, 175 State Office Building; (651) 297-1338 - $12.50 per item produced. The Senate does not provide copies of audio/video.
• If an individual wishes to listen to the recording of a committee meeting or floor session, public computers are located in the Legislative Reference Library, 651-296-8338, Room 645, State Office Building.

Screen Reader Software

• Screen reader software is installed on some public access computers in the Legislative Reference Library, Room 645, State Office Building (JAWS and NVDA) and the Legislative Reference Library, Room 3238, Minnesota Senate Building (NVDA).

Yes. The Request Capitol Access page provides information from the Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans.

Minnesota Relay Service

Individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech disabled may contact the Senate and House via their preferred Telecommunications Relay Service.

Minnesota Relay Service is a free service that uses a specially trained communications assistant (CA) to facilitate the telephone conversations between a person who has a hearing loss or speech disability and the person with whom they wish to speak. All calls are confidential. To make a Minnesota Relay call dial 7-1-1.

Sign Language Interpreters

Those who are interested in requesting CART or ASL can use the Legislature's combined meeting calendar to find upcoming meetings.

In order to provide accessibility for meetings with legislators, legislative committee hearings, and House and Senate floor sessions, the Legislature contracts with Keystone Interpreting Solutions to provide legislative sign language interpreting services. Interpreting services are also available for hearings or meetings with legislators in Greater Minnesota.

To request legislative interpreting services, call 651-454-7275 (voice) through their website's Request an Interpreter page or request by email.

Please make your request a minimum of 36 hours before the service is needed. You may also request legislative interpreting services from the committee administrator or committee legislative assistant that is planning the committee meeting you want to attend.

You may also request legislative interpreting services by contacting the Legislative Coordinating Commission at lcc@lcc.mn.gov, or call 651-296-9002, 651-296-1121, or 651-296-0099.

If you are interested in touring the Capitol building, ASL interpreters available upon request for guided tours. Interpreter reservation must be made 14 days in advance. Call 651-259-3003.

Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART)

Those who are interested in requesting CART or ASL can use the Legislature's combined meeting calendar to find upcoming meetings.

For CART services, contact the Legislative Coordinating Commission at lcc@lcc.mn.gov or call: 651-296-9002, 651-296-1121 or 651-296-0099. Please make your request a minimum of 36 hours before the service is needed.

Sound Reinforcement Systems

The Minnesota Senate has sound reinforcement systems for use in hearings rooms in the Minnesota Senate Building. The systems, for the exclusive use of people who are deaf or hard of hearing, are available for the duration of a particular meeting and must be returned immediately following the meeting. Senate receivers may be signed out during normal business hours from the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, room G-430, Minnesota Senate Building. For meetings lasting beyond normal business hours, receivers are to be returned to the committee staff. Call the Sergeant-at-Arms at 651-296-1119 for further information.

The Minnesota House has sound reinforcement systems in the 10 hearing rooms in the State Office Building. The systems, for the exclusive use of people who are deaf or hard of hearing, are available for the duration of a particular meeting and must be returned immediately following the meeting. House receivers for State Office Building hearing rooms may be signed out during normal business hours from the House Sergeants' Office, Room G-85, State Office Building. For meetings lasting beyond normal business hours, receivers are to be returned to the committee staff. Call the House Sergeant's Office at 651-296-4860 for further information.

Capitol Hearing Rooms, including the House Hearing Room 120, and the House Gallery have a telecoil loop sound reinforcement system. Standard headphones and T-loop neckloops are available from the Minnesota Historical Society front desk during normal business hours. The front desk is in the Capitol: room 126 on the first floor to the right side of the main (south) entrance.

The Minnesota House of Representatives and the Minnesota Senate produce and distribute unedited television coverage of all House and Senate floor sessions, select committee hearings, press conferences, and other issue-oriented programming. Programming is broadcast weekdays during the legislative session from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m., with extended evening and weekend coverage available for debates on high-profile issues. All broadcast programming is closed-captioned. See the House and Senate Broadcast Television Schedule page for a list of upcoming broadcast events and a channel guide.

All House and Senate television programming is webcast live over the internet. The live webcast service allows viewers to watch additional coverage not provided on the television channels or to watch extended evening coverage. In addition, all television programming is archived and made available on the Legislative Media Archive page as well as the House and Senate websites. Webcast programming is captioned. See the House audio and video pages for House live and House archived coverage and see the Senate Media Services pages for Senate live and archived video and Senate live and archived audio.

We continually refine our website in an effort to conform to accessibility standards and provide our online information in an accessible format.

Features

Text Sizing: In most Internet browsers, pressing Ctrl + Plus Sign (+) increases text size, and Ctrl + Minus Sign (-) decreases text size. Pressing the Ctrl key while scrolling up or down with the mouse wheel will also change the text size in most browsers. Alternatively, click the menu at the top of your browser and look for the "zoom" or "text size" option. This will present you with choices for scaling the text to your preferred size.

PDFs: For PDFs that are created within an office of the legislature, alternate formats or accessibly tagged PDFs are offered, when possible. If an accessible format is not immediately possible, the legislature strives to support accessibility on a case-by-case basis. Bills, session laws, statutes, and rules are offered in HTML as an alternate format to PDF.

Video: Web cast programming is captioned. See the House video page for live and archived House web cast coverage and see the Senate Media Services page for live and archived Senate web cast coverage.

Assistive Technology for our website

Screen reader software is installed on select public access computers in the Legislative Reference Library, room 645, State Office Building (JAWS and NVDA) and the Legislative Reference Library, room 3238, Minnesota Senate Building (NVDA). For more information about assistive technology, please see the Minnesota Star Program website.

Links to External Publications and Websites

The Minnesota Legislature's website may contain links to non-Legislative publications and web sites. The Minnesota Legislature has no control over the accessibility of these non-Legislative publications and external websites. Links are provided as a service to our audience, in an effort to provide additional information where applicable.

Accessibility & Usability Comments

If you are having accessibility or usability problems with any Minnesota Legislative website or software, please send your comments to us by using the Accessibility & Usability Comment Form.

More

Additional accessibility information is available in the FAQ - Disability Access, which includes information about wheelchair-accessibility, services for people who are blind or visually impaired, and services for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, among other topics.

Yes. Members of the general public are encouraged to testify before committees, though testimony will need to be arranged with committee staff prior to a scheduled hearing.

Contact the committee staff or your representative before the hearing. See the Combined Calendar for hearing dates and times.

Committees primarily focus hearings on particular bills, though occasionally they discuss issues of broad interest within the committee's jurisdiction. You can find a Senate standing committee schedule or House standing committee schedule online or call House Public Information Services at 651-296-2146 or Senate Information 651-296-0504 to find the phone numbers for committee staff or to receive a printed standing committee schedule.

From 2020-2023, House and Senate rules allowed for virtual and/or hybrid committee hearings (see Temporary Senate Rule 12.1(b) and House Rule 10.01 ). As a result, there were deviations from some of the processes outlined below. Future legislatures may or may not continue the practice of virtual and/or hybrid hearings.

Here are 10 suggestions to make it easier to get involved:

1. Arrive early. Getting to the meeting early will give you a chance to survey the meeting space, identify legislators, and make last-minute changes to your presentation.
2. Contact the committee's administrator or legislative assistant. If you want to testify, make sure you are on the committee meeting agenda. It's best to contact the committee a day or two before the hearing to do this. But, time permitting, it's possible to sign up and testify on same day of the hearing.
3. Introduce yourself. When speaking to the committee, clearly identify yourself and the organization you represent, if any. Then clearly state your position on the bill before the committee.
4. Speak through the committee chair. All questions and answers during committee hearings are routed through the committee chair. Address the chair as "Madame Chair" or "Mr. Chair." This makes it easier to follow the testimony when listening to tapes of recorded committee meetings.
5. Don't be intimidated. This is a citizen Legislature. Representatives are your friends and neighbors and they want to hear what you have to say. Just state your case clearly and in simple terms as you would to anyone.
6. Be brief. Make your key points as concisely as possible. Provide specific information about why your position is in the state's best interest. Legislators may want to know what, if anything, has been done in other states, what the costs might be, and what groups support or oppose your proposal. If you know the answers, include them in your statement.
7. Be prepared to answer questions. The best way to make your case is to provide straightforward answers to legislators' questions. If you don't know the answer, say so. If possible, find the answer and pass it on to committee members.
8. Bring written summaries. You may want to have copies of a concise summary of your key points to hand out to legislators, staff and the news media. Some legislators say a clearly written letter, or issue sheet, is the most effective way of gaining support.
9. Offer to help. Citizens play a key role in shaping state policy. Ask if there is anything you can do to help get the proposal in question approved or defeated.
10. Display mutual respect. Your views are important and you have a right to be treated courteously by all members and staff. Likewise, legislators are more apt to respond to polite treatment than to browbeating. There are many sides to every issue and each one has merit. Understand the difficult position legislators have in reaching their decisions.

Accommodations for people with a disability, such as sign language interpreters or large print materials, can be arranged with advance notice. See Disability Access for details.

House Public Information Services has created a series of short videos about testifying before a committee. Senate Media Services has created a video on "Tips on Testifying Before a Legislative Committee" as well.