Written by Katie Hunt Thomas
Happy Holidays! It is the time of year where we share a year wrap up of our Advocacy wins and successes and look forward to moving the needle on disability rights in 2025. This has been a packed year for disability rights at a federal level and here in the state of Ohio. This year our advocacy program:
Ramped up Our Access Network Guides and Trainings
The Ability Center advocacy program runs our Access Network that seeks to provide training and consultation on the Americans with Disabilities Act and other Access and Disability Issues. This year we focused on providing virtual access to meetings and programs through our Spring Access Network Breakfast and brought a nationally-recognized speaker, Betty Seigel, as the keynote for our fall ADA Seminar on Accessible Cultural Spaces co-sponsored with the Toledo Museum of Art. Overall, our team gave 21 presentations on disability access issues, held 11 advocacy events, and produced 8 written materials or guides. Watch for the upcoming launch of our Accessible Museum Guide as part of our ongoing collaboration on arts and cultural access with the Toledo Museum of Art.
Engaged in Grassroots and Policy Advocacy
This year, we brought many individuals with disabilities together to talk with decision makers and organize around disability issues at a state level – beginning with our Disability Issues Town Hall co-sponsored with Disability Rights Ohio in the spring, our Legislative Advocacy Day in the Capitol around the elimination of sub-minimum wage in Ohio, and our Disability Candidates’ Forum, co-sponsored by the ARC and Toledo Lucas County Commission on Disabilities, where we brought local and state legislative candidates together with individuals with disabilities to discuss disability issues.
Ability Center staff represented as a co-chair of the legislative committee for the Ohio Olmstead Taskforce, the Chair of the Policy Committee for the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority, and a representative to the Ohio Department of Medicaid’s working group on Self-Direction. Together, we submitted legislative testimony 8 times, provided public comment on 13 new proposed federal and state rules or agency plans and represented people with disabilities on 12 policy workgroups, committees, or Boards of Directors. Highlights include providing input to new federal rules around a renewal of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act including health care and web access, helping prioritize housing accessibility in the City of Toledo’s Toledo Together Housing Plan, and helping to amend and pass Ohio’s new Supported Decision Making law.
We also organized a new coalition of advocates around the development of passenger rail in northwest Ohio, the Disability and Aging Passenger Rail Coalition (DARC). Highlights included hosting Train Day, featuring Representative Marcy Kaptur and sharing a petition with Amtrak and state decision makers with 149 signatures asking for a passenger rail route from Detroit to Toledo and a letter signed by all Centers for Independent Living from Detroit to New Orleans supporting a passenger rail route connecting those cities. As the result of many individuals’ advocacy, the state of Ohio has identified a passenger rail corridor that would travel from Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland for study.
Disability Rights Education and Enforcement
This year, we focused on the accessibility of suburban downtown areas, engaging with the City of Perrysburg, Sylvania, and Maumee in ensuring that updates to their downtowns followed accessibility regulations. We promoted and presented to Mercy Health on the Department of Health and Human Services’ new rule on Accessible Diagnostic Medical Equipment and other requirements for hospital and medical office accessibility. We also helped launch accessibility improvements to the Bryan train station, and organized a coalition of advocates around voting accessibility issues. We filed 4 Enforcement Actions around disability rights laws.
Housing Advocacy
This year, our team was joined by a new housing advocate, Chere Olvera, who has served 47 consumers in need of housing in less than a year. Ms. Olvera has become a referral agent for the 811 Housing Program for individuals with disabilities, a Section 8 Voucher referral agent, and the co-chair of the no barriers committee for the Lucas County Continuum of Care Coalition.
We had 97 systems advocacy projects this year. By the numbers:
