Earlier this year, California adopted the 2010 version of the ADA Standards for Accessible Design (2010 ADAS), which includes standards on assistive listening devices. This extensive revision to the 2013 California Building Standards Code balances the state standards with those in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This effort reconciles over 2,500 items where California standards were different from the federal standards.
Titles II and III of the ADA specifically address Assistive Listening Systems (ALS), which are amplification systems utilizing transmitters, receivers, and coupling devices, are required for all assembly areas, conference rooms and meeting rooms for people with hearing impairments.
Specifically, the federal standards affecting ALS in sections 219 and 706 require:
• The 1991 Standards, at section 4.1.3(19)(b), require assembly areas, where audible communication is integral to the use of the space, to provide an assistive listening system if they have an audio amplification system or an occupant load of 50 or more people and have fixed seating. The 2010 Standards at section 219 require assistive listening systems in spaces where communication is integral to the space and audio amplification is provided and in courtrooms.
• The 1991 Standards require receivers to be provided for at least four percent (4%) of the total number of fixed seats. The 2010 Standards, at section 219.3, revise the percentage of receivers required according to a table that correlates the required number of receivers to the seating capacity of the facility. Small facilities will continue to provide receivers for four percent (4%) of the seats. The required percentage declines as the size of the facility increases. The changes also require at least twenty-five percent (25%), but no fewer than two, of the receivers to be hearing-aid compatible. Assembly areas served by an induction loop assistive listening system will not have to provide hearing-aid compatible receivers.
• Same Management or Building. The 2010 Standards add a new exception that allows multiple assembly areas that are in the same building and under the same management, such as theaters in a multiplex cinema and lecture halls in a college building, to calculate the number of receivers required based on the total number of seats in all the assembly areas, instead of each assembly area separately, where the receivers are compatible with the assistive listening systems used in each of the assembly areas.
• Mono Jacks, Sound Pressure, Etc. Section 4.33.7 of the 1991 Standards does not contain specific technical requirements for assistive listening systems. The 2010 Standards at section 706 require assistive listening systems to have standard mono jacks and will require hearing-aid compatible receivers to have neck loops to interface with telecoils in hearing aids. The 2010 Standards also specify sound pressure level, signal-to-noise ratio, and peak clipping level. Currently available assistive listening systems typically meet these technical requirements.
Review the 2010 California Building Code (CBC) to the 2013 CBC to learn about the changes to accessibility standards affecting ALS in Chapter 11B.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is responsible for enforcing the ADA standards. The DOJ may file lawsuits in federal court to enforce the ADA, and courts may order compensatory damages and back pay to remedy discrimination. The DOJ may also obtain civil penalties under Title III of up to $55,000 for the first violation and $110,000 for any subsequent violation.