New for 2024 Legislative Session:
ASL Interpretation Pilot for Committee Hearings
The Washington State Legislature is committed to making legislative activities and facilities accessible to all. The Legislature has taken steps to ensure that individuals with disabilities have full access to legislative activities, programs, and services. The Senate, the House of Representatives, and Legislative Support Services (LSS) have appointed
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinators to coordinate the implementation of the ADA and language access services and to provide assistance if questions or concerns arise.
Barrier-Free Access to Legislative Buildings
- All legislative buildings have designated disabled parking and entrance ramps to provide easy access. Each building on the campus has at least one door that is accessible by wheelchair.
- Legislative hearing rooms in the Cherberg and O'Brien buildings are accessible to persons using wheelchairs. Each hearing room has an accessible entrance and a designated wheelchair seating area.
- If additional assistance is required, please contact the appropriate
ADA Coordinator.
Map showing accessibility areas on the Capitol Campus (PDF 948 kb)
Aids for Communication
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TTY-Assistance. Any legislative number can be reached via the state
Telephone Relay Service at 1.800.833.6384 (voice) or 1.800.833.6388 (TTY).
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Assistive Listening Devices. Assistive listening devices are available by request and may be used at any seat in the Hearing Rooms, select conference rooms, and public galleries in the House and Senate Chambers. Headsets with induction neck-loops are available for persons who use hearing aids and cochlear implants with a "T" switch. Ask your audiologist whether your hearing aid or cochlear implant has a "T" switch (telecoil) and how to use it with an assistive listening headset. Requests for headsets and neck-loops should be directed to Senate or House Security staff.
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ASL Interpreters and Readers. If you require an American Sign Language interpreter or reader, please contact the
ADA Coordinator in advance. The more advance notice you are able to provide, the higher likelihood that your request can be fulfilled.
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Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART). This "real time captioning" service can be requested for committee hearings for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Please contact the
ADA Coordinator in advance. The more advance notice you are able to provide, the higher likelihood that your request can be fulfilled.
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Documents in Alternate Formats. If you require a legislative document in an alternate format, such as large print, Braille, or audio tape, contact the
ADA Coordinator. Please give as much advance notice as possible, as it may take significant time to meet certain requests.
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Spoken Language Interpretation. If you require spoken language interpretation, please contact the
ADA Coordinator
in advance. The more advance notice you are able to provide, the higher likelihood that your request can be fulfilled.
TVW Picture in Picture Broadcast Pilot for Committee Hearings
The Washington State Legislature, in collaboration with
TVW, is piloting a project to provide picture-in-picture ASL interpretation for certain House and Senate hearings broadcasted during the 2024 Legislative Session. Selected hearings will be broadcast via TVW with ASL interpretation picture-in-picture. While this view is not available in the hearing rooms, it may be available on laptops, tablets, smartphones, or other internet connected electronic devices. The purpose of this pilot service is to offer more access to the Legislative process for persons who are deaf or have hearing loss/impairment. Requests to provide this service for specific hearings or all hearings are not possible for this pilot. The preliminary schedule for picture-in-picture ASL interpretation hearings for the following week will be made available on Fridays, subject to change. Please direct inquiries to the schedule, which can be found at:
The picture-in-picture service is distinct from individual ASL interpretation requests for persons attending hearings or meetings. A request for onsite interpretation is a separate process coordinated through ADA Coordinators in the House and Senate. These requests can be made through the ADA Coordinators whose information can be found below.
Additional Information:
Using the Legislature’s Website
Most computers provide accessibility tools. Below are reference articles for the common operating systems. Please note that you may need to upgrade your computer’s operating system to see the newest features described.
Accessible Documents and Videos
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Bills, Amendments, and Workroom Reports. The Legislature makes HTML versions of bills, amendments, and the reports produced by the offices of the Chief Clerk and Secretary of the Senate available by means of the
Text of a Legislative Document application in Detailed Legislative Reports.
- Enter the four-digit bill number (for example, 1109, 5412) or part of the name of the report (e.g., Intro, Standing), then click Find Document to get a list of the documents.
- Click the HTM link to display the browser-based version of the document. This version of the document does not include line and page numbers. It does include the struck-through and underlined text, however.
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Committee Schedules page provides links to the videos of the hearings that meet your search criteria.
- Click View Video to obtain the video of the live hearing or an archived hearing.
- In the window in which the video appears, scroll down to get to the Transcript button. The transcript appears in a frame below the button. If the video is running while you are viewing the transcript, the words spoken in the video are highlighted.
Please visit
TVW.org for archived videos of House and Senate floor sessions.
ADA Coordinators
The Senate, the House of Representatives, and Legislative Support Services (LSS) have appointed ADA Coordinators to coordinate the implementation of the ADA and to provide assistance if questions or concerns arise.
These coordinators only support access and communication to legislative activities and facilities. The ADA Coordinators are:
Senate
Bao Xiong
Systems Analyst
103 Legislative Building
PO Box 40482
Olympia, WA 98504-0482
(360) 786-7558
Senate.ADA@leg.wa.gov
House
Kyle Overmiller
Technology & Facilities Director
336C Legislative Building
P.O. Box 40600
Olympia, WA 98504-0600
(360) 786-7271
kyle.overmiller@leg.wa.gov