Frequently Asked Questions - Accessibility

How can I report an accessibility barrier or request an accommodation?

What is the Americans with Disabilities Act grievance procedure and appeal process?

This Grievance Procedure is established to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”). It may be used by anyone who wishes to request reconsideration of an accommodation request determination, or to report a complaint or grievance alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in the provision of services, activities, programs, or benefits by the Legislature. The internal policies of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Senate, and Legislative Coordinating Commission separately govern employment-related complaints of disability discrimination.

Grievance/Complaint Procedure and Requests for Reconsideration

Individuals may request reconsideration of an accommodation request determination directly to the individuals identified below. Individuals may also make an initial report of a complaint or grievance alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in the provision of services, activities, programs, or benefits by the Legislature, to the individuals identified below:

House of Representatives, contact: House Sergeant's Office at 651-296-4860 or accessibility.coordinator@lcc.mn.gov.
Senate, contact: Senate Sergeant at Arms at 651-296-1119 or accessibility.coordinator@lcc.mn.gov.
Legislative Coordinating Commission (LCC), contact: 651-296-6036 or accessibility.coordinator@lcc.mn.gov

A request for reconsideration must be filed within 15 days of the determination on the initial accommodation request. An initial report of a complaint or grievance should be reported by the grievant and/or their designee as soon as possible after the alleged violation, but no later than 15 calendar days after the alleged violation.

The individuals identified above will review the request for reconsideration or allegation of a violation, work with the individual(s) involved to determine an appropriate resolution, and make a decision on the request or grievance/complaint.

Appeal process

If the request for reconsideration of an accommodation is denied, or the individual grievant/complainant(s) feels that the issue or alleged violation has not been satisfactorily resolved, they may appeal the decision by following the steps below.

The appeal should contain information about the alleged discrimination and decision being appealed including:

Name of Grievant/Complainant
Address, City, State, Zip Code
Phone, email Address
Date(s) the alleged discriminatory act or decision occurred
Location and name of program or service involved that is the subject of the appeal
Type of accommodation requested (if applicable)
Description of discriminatory act or decision

Alternative means of filing an appeal, such as personal interviews, will be made available for persons with disabilities upon request.

The appeal should be submitted by the grievant/complainant and/or their designee as soon as possible but no later than 15 calendar days after the date of the decision being appealed:

For complaints related to the House of Representatives, submit the appeal to:

Chief Clerk of the House
Chief Clerk’s Office
Phone number: 651-296-2314
Email Address: pat.murphy@house.mn.gov
211 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155

For complaints related to the Senate, submit the appeal to:

Secretary of the Senate
Phone number
Email address: tom.bottern@senate.mn
231 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155

For complaints related to the LCC or Joint Offices and Commissions submit the appeal to:

Executive Director of the Legislative Coordinating Commission
(651) 296-0099
lcc@lcc.mn.gov
Centennial Building, 1^st Floor
658 Cedar Street
St. Paul Minnesota 55155

The individuals identified above will review the appeal, gather further information if necessary, and provide a final determination.

Are public hearings wheelchair-accessible?

Are there wheelchairs available?

Are there specific services for people who are blind or visually impaired?

Are there services for people who are deaf or hard of hearing?

Yes. Services include Minnesota Relay Service, American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreters, Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), and Sound Reinforcement Systems.

The Request Capitol Access page provides information about services from The Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing.

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 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 ASL interpreting services, contact the Legislative Coordinating Commission at accessibility.coordinator@lcc.mn.gov, or call, 651-296-6036. Please make your request a minimum of one week before the services are needed.

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

Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART)

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

To request legislative CART services, contact the Legislative Coordinating Commission at accessibility.coordinator@lcc.mn.gov, or call 651-296-6036. Please make your request a minimum of two weeks before the services are 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 State Office Building is temporarily closed to the public for construction.

Capitol Hearing Rooms, including the House Hearing Room 120, and the House Gallery have a telecoil loop sound reinforcement system. House receivers for State Capitol hearing rooms may be signed out from 8:30am to 5:00pm at the Minnesota Historical Society Information Desk, Room 126, State Capitol Building.

Where are the best locations for drop off and pick up for Metro Mobility?

Is there a guide to the Capitol for visitors with disabilities?

Where do I park when I visit the Capitol?

How can I watch the Legislature on television?

May I testify at a committee hearing virtually?

May I testify at a committee hearing?

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 2020-2025, House and Senate rules allowed for virtual and/or hybrid committee hearings (see Temporary Senate Rule 12.1(b) and House Rule 10.05 ). 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. See also the FAQ: May I testify at a committee hearing virtually?

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

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 the Accessibility FAQs 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.

Is the Legislature's website accessible?

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 321 Capitol (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, please send your comments to us by using the Accessibility & Usability Comment Form.

More

Additional accessibility information is available in the Accessibility FAQs, 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.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Minnesota Legislature

Accessibility