2026 Public Policy Agenda

Advocacy

Federal disability rights preservation 

Seek and support state-level efforts to fill gaps created by changes in disability protections on the federal level.

Aging

Age-related hearing loss task force

• Continue reviewing age-related hearing loss policy gaps and make recommendations. The last task force met in 2018.
• Address research showing link between hearing loss and dementia and make recommendations for reducing risk of dementia.

Communication Access

Communication access during emergencies

Work with the governor's office and state agencies to make sure the plan for communication access during emergencies is up to date.

Closed captioning always on in public places 

Update human rights law to clarify that closed captioning needs to be always on when TV service is provided to the public.

Education

Child counts for all categorical disabilities

The data that the state tracks on children with disabilities helps educators and policymakers better serve those children. Current data reporting policies mean that children who have more than one disability may be missing from the Deaf/Hard of Hearing or DeafBlind categories. This would help make sure these categories show a true count of children.

Kindergarten fall assessment requirements

Gather information and address DDBHH needs for the new kindergarten assessment requirements scheduled to take effect in 2027. 

Language assessment for ages 0-5 standardization

Seek ways to make sure that deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing children ages 0-5 are being assessed for language milestones.

READ Act amendments

Continue carrying out recommendations from the Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing (DDBHH) Working Group to make sure requirements and resources for raising the literacy level of students include DDBHH students.

School safety plans

Strengthen language on schools' responsibility to understand and plan for what is needed to keep students with disabilities as safe as other students during emergencies.

Special education equitable metrics

The state is required to report progress on goals for students with disabilities. Currently, these goals aim to reduce the number of students in separate settings such as deaf schools or deaf programs. We want language that does not penalize districts for placing children in a language-rich environment.

Support various DDBHH educational settings

Multiple ongoing initiatives and more details to come.

Employment

ASL teacher licensure 

• Improve ASL teacher licensure process to make fluency more important.
• Highly ranked by Greater Minnesota respondents
• Impacts interest level in ASL interpreting field

Healthcare

Telehealth accessibility

For telehealth visits, the videoconferencing technology used by healthcare providers can make it difficult for an interpreter to join or for captions to be enabled. We are seeking ways to better enforce accessibility requirements for those videoconferencing services.

Community Health Worker (CHW) portable certification

Portable statewide certification would allow CHWs serving low-incidence populations to sustainably serve patients anywhere in Minnesota, regardless of insurance or hospital affiliation. 

Supports

Support Service Provider (SSP) availability

• Increase the availability of support service providers for deafblind people.
• Need is great – long waiting lists reported.

Technology

Hearing aid affordability

Address policy issues that are increasing out-of-pocket costs for hearing aids.

Emerging technology appropriate usage

• The state is investing in artificial intelligence tools to reduce the time to do some tasks. We want to make sure those tools do not discriminate against DDBHH.
• More reports of providers refusing to provide onsite interpreters and offering only VRI even when inappropriate.

Transportation

On-demand transportation accessibility

• Metro Mobility study coming out with DeafBlind input
• On-demand ridesharing
• Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs, or driverless cars)
• Service dog acceptance rates