Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
The latest regulations of the Americans with Disabilities Act affecting people with hearing loss, which became effective on March 15, 2012, make it now mandatory that assistive listening systems (ALS) be provided in assembly areas that have audio amplification.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress and signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush. The ADA is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability.
On September 25, 2008, President George W. Bush signed the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) into law. This was intended to give broader protections for disabled workers and "turn back the clock" on restrictive court rulings.
The Department of Justice published revised final regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for title II (State and local government services) and title III (public accommodations and commercial facilities) on September 15, 2010, in the Federal Register. These regulations clarify issues that have arisen over the past 20 years and contain new and updated requirements, including the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design. The effective date of the Department's revised ADA rules was March 15, 2012
These revised requirements or rules address in greater detail assistive listening systems (ALS) to help the hearing impaired.