It’s important to have a collective of voices at the table in advocacy. The vision of advocacy is One Ohio United for Disability Rights. A call to join forces with disability advocates, families, providers, and allies to advocate for change.

It’s important for people to use their voice and get involved with Rule-Making in Ohio. Each week there are about a dozen mailing lists that send out notifications for rule changes for each state agency. The Ohio Register is one place that people can find hearing notices. There are also ways to subscribe or add yourself to email lists where rules are shared. Sometimes people will open a separate email account for advocacy, these notifications can become overwhelming and make it so your inbox is jammed full.

Every State Agency is required to publish a rule notice and conduct a public hearing about each rule they want to adopt, change or review. The public hearing gives people the opportunity to speak up about the rules. All rules go thru this process except Emergency Rules. Each notice is put out in a PDF format on the Ohio Registers Website.

One might ask how do I figure out if there are changes to a rule and how to make a comment or even how to share your voice on rule changes. Some rules are up for review every five years. If people don’t like how they are written they can ask for established rules to be amended or changed.

Some important things to note on reading rules. Strike through means that a part of rule is being taken out or deleted. When something is underlined it is new information or wording being added to a rule. If it is regular text then that is part of the original rule.

People can engage in rule-making in a number of different ways. People can send in written comments or written testimony. There are opportunities to testify in person or through virtual hearings. Sometimes people will write to Legislators to share stories as well.

It’s important to know you can get accommodations to under rules up for public comment or even state budget bill. You can also get accommodations for public testimony too.

To request an accommodation for example to participate in the state budget process by getting information in an accessible format you can contact Wendy.Zhan@lsc.ohio.gov she works for the Ohio Legislative Services Commission.

Every state agency has their own ADA directors. Here’s a link to learn about about each state directors ADA Director.

When testifying in Columbus there are ADA accommodations people can get. These include extra time to share your testimony if you have a disability, being able to testify at specific time during a hearing so your not stuck in Columbus all day, from having an ASL interpreter to also getting an interpreter or someone to help read your testimony.

ADA accommodations are advocacy in action it’s putting your needs out there and asking for people to make it so you can access things to be able to have equal access like everyone else.