Biennial exemptions report: Accommodation for hard-of-hearing in state-funded capital projects

Summary

Minnesota's commission reports to the legislature on exemptions from the state law that requires hearing loops in state-funded public gathering spaces.

Key findings

• The statute reproduced on printed page 3 covers state-funded capital construction or renovation of public gathering spaces in buildings for at least 15 people where audible communication is integral. Subdivision 2(1) conditions the loop requirement on existing or planned permanent amplification; subdivision 2(2) states the ANSI school background-noise and reverberation criteria separately. The page 4 application clause covers appropriations enacted after 1 January 2017, subject to its completed-design exception.
• Printed page 3, subdivision 1, defines a public gathering space as a space constructed or renovated as part of the project that accommodates and is intended for gatherings of 15 or more people, with audible communication integral to a use of the space. Subdivision 2 concerns these spaces in buildings.
• Quotes Minnesota Statutes 16C.054: no state contract or grant may fund building or renovating a public gathering space for 15 or more people that has or will have a permanent audio-amplification system unless the project includes audio-induction loops and meets ANSI acoustical criteria for schools on background noise and reverberation. It applies to projects funded by appropriations enacted after 1 January 2017.
• The statute text it quotes requires loops but names no performance standard for them.
• Reports one exemption request in 2022-2023, still under review when the report was written.
• States that applicants do not have to tell the Commission when projects follow the law, "so the Commission has no data about any projects that may have followed the statute".
• The statute reproduced on printed page 3, subdivision 3, permits an exemption after consultation with the Commission where a requirement is infeasible, conflicts with law or other project requirements, or costs outweigh benefits. The effective-date provision on page 4 also excludes projects whose schematic design was already complete when the section took effect.

Limits

Covers exemptions only: it records no installations, measurements or test results, so it says nothing about how installed loops perform. Minnesota state-funded projects only.

Read the original

www.lrl.mn.gov/docs/2024/mandated/240302.pdf

Link checked 13 October 2026. We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

• Which systems satisfy the ADA and building codes, and does a listener's own phone count?Disputed
• How is an installed hearing loop checked against IEC 60118-4, and how often does it pass?Partly answered
• What does each system cost to install and to run over its life?Open
• What works in courtrooms, council chambers and other meeting rooms where speech must be heard by all and kept in the room?Partly answered
• What public funding or grants exist for venues to install assistive listening?Partly answered

Cite this source

The accessed date is when this library last checked the link; use the date you read it. To point readers to this summary instead, link to https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/mncdhh-2024-loop-exemptions-report/

Every finding here cites its source, and who funded each source is labelled. This site does not recommend products. Found an error or a missing study? Suggest a correction.