The Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities
mn.gov/disability-mn
Providing information, education, and training to build knowledge, develop skills, and change attitudes that will lead to increased independence, productivity, self determination, integration and inclusion (IPSII) for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

MNDDC Web Site Accessibility

This web site has been designed and built to comply with ADA Section 508 accessibility requirements, and to be accessible on desktop, tablet, and mobile platforms. For more information on web site accessibility, please review these resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility

https://www.w3.org/WAI/

https://www.apple.com/accessibility/

https://www.google.com/accessibility/

https://www.adobe.com/accessibility.html

HTML text content on this site is accessible to screen reader software and browser plug-ins.

Images have been given alt tag descriptions, and where appropriate text alternatives.

Video content is closed-captioned, and a text transcript is provided. Audio media content is also accompanied by a text transcript.

The template and page code for this site is updated to responsive HTML5 standards. This includes conversion of Flash-based media elements to other formats that do not require the Flash plugin, which has been discontinued.

If you encounter accessibility issues while using this site, we'd like to hear from you. Please use our contact form to let us know about any accessibility problems you may encounter.

Documents on This Site

The archival documents on this site are provided in Adobe PDF format. Many documents are also provided in a plain text version. Using the free Adobe Reade program to read text content in these files. We recommend using the latest version of this free software for the most up-to-date accessibility features and for security reasons. Please refer to Adobe Accessibility and Reader Help for more information on using this feature.

The vast majority of PDF documents on this site have been scanned, and then processed using OCR software to provided readable text. In certain instances, the quality of the source material does not allow OCR to properly interpret the text in the scanned image, and these documents are not able to be read using Acrobat accessibility features. These historical documents were posted on this website prior to 9/1/2010.

This website has been designed and built to comply with both federal and state requirements:

Federal:

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (known as Section 508) – The Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by Federal Agencies and in programs receiving Federal financial assistance. In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities.

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended (known as ADA) – ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in several areas, including State and local government, to give people with disabilities and equal opportunity to benefit from all programs, services, and activities. ADA provided a national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities and setting enforceable standards.

State:

MN Statutes 16E.03, Subdivision 9, effective 9/1/2010, requires all state agencies to adhere to standards for accessibility developed by the State Chief Information Officer. Those standards were to incorporate both Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 or to have an exception to the requirements granted by the State CIO.

MN Statutes 363A.42 effective 1/1/2013 provides additional penalties to agencies for inaccessible records or other documents modified or produced after 1/1/2013, regardless of physical form or method of storage. The term records is defined as any publicly available recorded information. Penalties are $500 per violation plus reasonable attorney fees and costs.

MN Statues 363.43 effective 1/1/2013 – requires any continuing education or professional development course, offering, material or activity administered by the state must be made available in an accessible format to individuals with disabilities. Penalties are $500 per violation, plus reasonable attorney fees and costs.

State of Minnesota Accessibility Standard – Requires all State information systems, tools and information content to comply with WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance and to comply with selected provisions of Section 508 or to apply for a written exception.

©2025 The Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities
Administration Building   50 Sherburne Avenue   Room G10
St. Paul, Minnesota 55155
Phone: 651-296-4018   Toll-free number: 877-348-0505   MN Relay Service: 800-627-3529 OR 711
Email: admin.dd.info@state.mn.us    View Privacy Policy    An Equal Opportunity Employer 

The GCDD is funded under the provisions of P.L. 106-402. The federal law also provides funding to the Minnesota Disability Law Center, the state Protection and Advocacy System, and to the Institute on Community Integration, the state University Center for Excellence. The Minnesota network of programs works to increase the IPSII of people with developmental disabilities and families into community life.

This project was supported, in part by grant number 2401MNSCDD, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy.

This website is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $1,152,808.00 funded by ACL/HHS and $222,000.00 funded by non-federal-government source(s). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACL/HHS, or the U.S. Government.