As summer draws to a close and big, yellow school busses begin to appear in the morning fog, we sit at the outset of the third school year impacted by the COVID pandemic.
August 20, Read More. Earlier this year, you answered our calls and stood beside us in fighting against a budget bill amendment we saw as harmful and threatening to our work. You made countless phone calls and sent hundreds of emails to your representatives on our behalf asking them to remove this amendment. August 13, Read More. Each summer, Disability Rights Ohio embarks to develop our goals and objectives for the upcoming year.
This goal-setting process connects us to Ohioans with disabilities, allowing our team to understand the scope and impact of the latest issues facing our communities. August 6, Read More. July 30, Read More. July 23, Read More. While the global COVID pandemic complicated seemingly all aspects of our daily lives, the lasting impacts magnified the need for many of the essential functions performed by our organization.
July 16, Read More. From fighting for community living to advocating for safe returns to work, DRO empowered Ohioans with the tools to advocate for the life they deserve. All year long, their stories lit our path. July 9, Read More. July 2, Read More. The essence of DRO is rooted in the empowerment of individuals and communities throughout our state, and sharing their stories and experiences with our allies and supporters is by far the best way to understand the totality of our work.
June 25, Read More. June 18, Read More. June 11, Read More. Perhaps you heard the faint quacking earlier this week as more than rubber ducks paddled down the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers near Marietta. June 4, Read More. Of all the challenges presented by the ongoing COVID pandemic, some of the most concerning surround the interrupted educational opportunities and their impact on students who depend on special education services.
May 28, Read More. May 21, Read More. May 14, Read More. May 7, Read More. By partnering with allies and like-minded organizations across the country, our work can grow and our impact can be amplified.
April 30, Read More. April 23, Read More. Recently, we began transitioning our intake system to return to live specialists answering the phones instead of the voicemail prompt. April 16, Read More. April 9, Read More. Five years ago, we embarked on a legal journey to improve access to Home and Community-Based Services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. April 2, Read More. March 26, Read More. March 19, Read More. March 12, Read More.
This is the guiding force behind our work and the righteous drive behind our fight. March 5, Read More. February 26, Read More. A troubling new study is shedding light on just how deeply-rooted implicit biases may be within our system of healthcare against people with disabilities. February 19, Read More. When faced with a serious diagnosis, common sense dictates that addressing only the symptoms and not the disease is not a cure. February 12, Read More. January 29, Read More.
Since the arrival of effective, approved vaccines at the end of last year, the monumental task of production, distribution, and prioritization has been underway. January 22, Read More. As imperfect as our systems of justice may be, we believe that the principles behind them- liberty and justice for all- are inherently good. January 15, Read More. This week, we all watched in horror as an armed mob overtook the U. Capitol building for the first time in more than years. January 8, Read More.
From the first days of , however, we had much to celebrate as we stepped ever closer towards our vision of a truly equal society.
December 23, Read More. December 18, Read More. While not a topic an organization like ours has focused on in the past, we believe it is incredibly important to acknowledge that a free and equal society cannot be realized until these mechanisms of systemic discrimination are diagnosed and eliminated.
December 11, Read More. As we move into what could be a dark winter, there are several actions that people with disabilities can take to help alleviate complications down the road. December 4, Read More.
November 25, Read More. The Home and Community Based system in Ohio needs additional funding from the state to continue supporting the independence and safety of older Ohioans and people with disabilities.
November 20, Read More. November 13, Read More. November 6, Read More. October 30, Read More. The decisions we make in eleven days will have an impact for years to come.
October 23, Read More. October 16, Read More. Through the haze of negative campaign ads and catchy one-liners, it can be difficult to figure out exactly where the candidates stand issues of importance to Ohioans with disabilities.
October 9, Read More. Every day that goes by brings with it new challenges and new obstacles for Ohioans with disabilities. October 2, Read More. Thousands of Ohioans face barriers leaving institutions in favor of community care. September 25, Read More. September 18, Read More. Earlier this year, a concerned family reached out to Disability Rights Ohio on behalf of their son Tanner, who has autism.
September 11, Read More. Much like parents, managed care providers can have trouble working through the complex Medicaid managed care system. September 4, Read More. August 28, Read More. August 14, Read More. A deeper understanding of any problem creates better solutions. August 7, Read More. The strength of an organization lies in its results, and was a historic year for Disability Rights Ohio and the communities we serve. Through advocacy, assistance, and action our work made it possible for more Ohioans to live, work, learn, and go where they wanted.
July 24, Read More. Since the beginning of the COVID crisis, there have been very serious concerns across the country about equal access to life-saving health care for people with disabilities.
July 13, Read More. Earlier this week, we released the results of our nine-month investigation into Sequel Pomegranate, a residential treatment facility for children in Columbus. Our findings were shocking: Serious and systemic cases of abuse and neglect, violations of safety and treatment standards, inappropriate use of restraint, peer-to-peer bullying and staff intimidation, and June 26, Read More.
June 19, Read More. At Disability Rights Ohio, our vision is to create a society where all members are equal participants: where members of any minority enjoy the same rights as the majority. We recognize the impact of generations of oppression and systemic injustice in our work. June 9, Read More. Have you been trying to teach your kids from home? For parents trying to navigate home schooling AND access to special education services for their children, it's even more difficult.
April 17, Read More. Last winter, Francis contacted Disability Rights Ohio for help leaving a nursing facility. Francis has physical disabilities and had been stuck unnecessarily in a nursing facility for years. This restrictive setting was stifling for him; he lost his independence and autonomy and became depressed. Francis desperately wanted to return March 10, Read More. Traci had been using a local recreational center's pool for prescribed physical therapy sessions to treat her spina bifida.
After just three weeks, though, the rec center revoked her access to the pool because of her colostomy bag. August 30, Read More. When her family resettled in Ohio as refugees from Zimbabwe two years ago, Tyra looked forward to receiving the quality of education she was unable to access for years in exile because she was deaf.
August 16, Read More. Megan lived independently with her boyfriend of six years and received regular visits from her private agency guardian. One day, the guardian thought she saw a "crack pipe" in the couple's apartment and ordered Megan to take a drug test. August 2, Read More.
Nicholas was excited when he received an Individual Options IO waiver so he could live in his community with his brother and sister-in-law. When his county's Board of Developmental Disabilities June 28, Read More. Daniel was happy to start his new job on an assembly line. One month later, his cataracts caused him to miss the holes for the nails he was inserting.
He was written up and told unofficially that if he couldn't see, he would be let go. June 21, Read More. Morgan was heading into her fourth year of high school.
She was excited to attend a "social graduation," where she would walk across the stage with her class but would then remain in school to obtain needed services as part of her IEP transition plan. Under IDEA, students with disabilities May 31, Read More. Jenna, an independent woman with an intellectual disability, was excited about being a new mother following the birth of her baby daughter.
However, while still in the hospital recovering from the delivery, child protective services removed the baby from Jenna's custody and placed her with a foster family.
May 3, Read More. Michael is a long-time nurse who is currently enrolled in a program to become a nurse practitioner. As a person who is hard of hearing, Michael requires speech-to-text technology and captioned videos to access class lectures and materials.
When these accommodations were not provided, however, Michael began to struggle in April 26, Read More. Lynn's service dog is trained to help her manage the symptoms of her PTSD. When making trips to her local Job and Family Services JFS office, security staff asked Lynn twice to provide proof of her dog's status as a service animal. Both times, they ultimately refused to allow her April 19, Read More.
When Gabe started second grade, he was really struggling in school. He was getting speech therapy, but his mother knew he was not progressing academically like he should. She asked the school to provide additional services, but they refused. She then requested a re-evaluation for Gabe, which was also refused April 12, Read More. Hundreds of people would be denied services without recourse.
They wouldn't receive information about how to challenge those decisions. March 29, Read More. David has a diagnosed mental illness and has been placed in solitary confinement in a state correctional facility. He felt his mental health was deteriorating and believed that he was not getting enough out-of-cell time in line with state prison policy. He attempted to advocate for himself, but he wasn't March 22, Read More. Ben had a Level 1 Medicaid waiver, which provided some services, but not enough to keep him from wandering away from his home at night sometimes, which put him at risk.
His father had applied to get him placed on a SELF waiver three times, but the county board of March 15, Read More. March 1, Read More. Claire, a veteran diagnosed with PTSD, has three support dogs that help her manage the symptoms of her disability. February 22, Read More. When Caleb started having behaviors at school, he was removed from his school's general education program and placed in a behavioral program.
Another conflict got the seventh-grader suspended due to aggressive behavior, and the school moved to expel him. February 15, Read More. February 1, Read More.
Will lives in a state correctional facility in a unit that treats residents with mental illness. He grew concerned about the conditions of his unit when he saw mice, insects and what he thought to be black mold in the facility.
Worried about his health and the health of his January 25, Read More. When he was in kindergarten, Jonathan went to a school for students with autism, but his mom felt that he would do well in general education classrooms with the right support.
However, when he entered first grade at his new school, his mom noticed significant changes in his behavior and January 18, Read More. Beverly was pretty happy with the in-home and rental assistance services she was receiving in her accessible apartment. However, her apartment building was slowly being transitioned to an assisted living facility.
In October, she was notified that she would have to switch from an Ohio Home Care waiver to an This week, United Airlines stopped a woman who was trying to put her "emotional support" animal - a peacock - on a flight.
More emotional support animals are showing up in public, even though it's not legal in Kentucky. The issue is both confusing and controversial. Some service animal trainers said people are bucking the system with untrained animals so they can take their pets everywhere. That move is hurting people with disabilities. On a random night at Toys "R" Us in Lexington, some cute youngsters were walking the aisles. A group from Wildcat Service Dogs were going through drills, as they are allowed to do under federal law.
The service dogs were training to be cool and calm around people and environments they're not used to. Their University of Kentucky student trainers took pride in the goal. Mitchell is talking about people with disabilities. That's exactly why the recent confusion between service animals and emotional support animals is frustrating.
The Wildcat Service explained that there is no such thing as a service pig, service cat or service parrot. Calm and controlled service dogs, and in a few cases miniature horses, are the only animals trained to perform service tasks for their disabled handlers.
The dogs cost thousands of dollars and are considered medical equipment for a handler with a physical or psychiatric disability. That's why they are allowed in public places under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Trainers with Wildcat Service Dogs said recently they have been illegally denied access to places they were once welcome, due to untrained emotional support animals misbehaving.
Delta said it's overwhelmed with customer complaints about untrained emotional support animals. One passenger suffered serious facial injuries after a dog bit him. Delta announced it's adding animal restrictions in March: Proof of need and vaccinations, 48 hours before flights.
The National Federation of the Blind is fighting Delta's new rules, saying they're discriminatory and breaking federal law. For employees of businesses, spotting fakes from real service animals isn't easy. What is? Making fakes look legit. Just Google "emotional support animal" to get a certified registration letter through a quick question and answer process. She said she's been yelled at when taking her Border Collie Beagle mix, Pixie, into a business.
Hoover said originally she wanted to take her dog everywhere for support, "When I was traveling for work, I was trying to move into an apartment community that didn't allow dogs.
She said the move caused depression and anxiety so her doctor wrote her a note for the dog. But now, as a property manager, she admits she can see people working the system. Holton, a recently retired blind judge, shared what he thinks about emotional support animals and the impact they have had on his family.
Both of his parents have been under treatment for serious illnesses and Sugar travels with them - where she's allowed - for comfort. Holton believes we should all live with compassion and tolerance but, added, "People need to be responsible and do the honorable thing.
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