The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) prohibit discrimination based on disabilities. These laws say that state and local governments have to make sure that people with disabilities have “meaningful access” to the services that they provide. The courts are one of these services.
The ADA and MHRA say that courts have to make “reasonable accommodations” and “reasonable modifications” to rules, policies, and procedures. This is to make sure that people with disabilities have meaningful and equal access to the services that courts offer.
Examples of reasonable accommodations in the court system are things like:
- having American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters for people who are deaf or hard of hearing
- letting a witness have their service animal with them
- changing court schedules to accommodate a disability-related medical need
