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Goals and Objectives for Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2027

OCTOBER 1, 2026, TO SEPTEMBER 30, 2027

Disability Rights Ohio is a nonprofit corporation with a mission of empowering people with disabilities to advance rights, access, and equity. Our work is led and informed by a Board of Directors comprised primarily of people with disabilities and others with lived experiences. Every year, we collect information from Ohioans with disabilities, their family members, and other stakeholders. Through hundreds of surveys and input from our PAIMI Advisory Council, our goals and objectives have been informed by the lived experiences of advocates statewide and approved by our Board of Directors.

To achieve the greatest impact, DRO works strategically to focus our limited resources directly to those who need us most. DRO recognizes that people with disabilities face multiple, complex barriers throughout their lives. To maximize our impact, our work will focus on Ohioans with disabilities who are at heightened risk of harm, discrimination, isolation, or disconnection from essential service systems. This includes people with disabilities who are in institutions or at risk of institutionalization, who are legally dependent on others for decision-making including children, and who face multiple complex barriers to community integration such as poverty, language barriers, regional service deficiencies, and other overlapping factors that impede community inclusion. 

Strengthening and expanding access to community supports and services. 
Advocacy for people with a MH diagnosis or TBI who are unnecessarily institutionalized
  • Engage in advocacy for people with a mental health diagnosis or traumatic brain injury who are unnecessarily institutionalized by addressing system capacity barriers to transitioning into home and community based supports. 
Advocacy for access to community supports and services for youth with complex behavioral health needs
  • Engage with partners and provide individual advocacy to increase access to home and community-based services for youth with complex behavioral health needs, who face multiple barriers to community integration, are at risk of institutionalization, or are institutionalized. 
Individual advocacy for people with I/DD to become eligible for services in DD system
  • Provide individual advocacy for Ohioans with intellectual and developmental disabilities that are experiencing multiple complex barriers becoming eligible for services in the developmental disabilities system (including home and community-based waiver eligibility). 
Individual and systemic monitoring of InterRAI implementation
  • Monitor implementation of new assessment tool InterRAI and provide individual advocacy in select cases to address emerging system concerns. 
Supporting disabled people to participate in advocacy and policymaking to address major, systemic issues that directly impact their lives by centering their experiences and perspectives. 
Advocate to maintain increased investments that fund HCBS
  • Advocacy to maintain increased investments in systems that fund home and community-based services 
Advocate to eliminate sub-minimum wage
  • Advocacy for the elimination of 14(c) sub-minimum wage certificates in Ohio 
Advocate to expand HCBS for people with TBI
  • Advocacy to expand home and community-based services for people with traumatic brain injury 
Advocate for non-coercive mental health services and interventions
  • Advocacy for policy initiatives that increase and expand access to voluntary non-coercive mental health services, such as community response systems, expanded behavioral health coordination and other community-based services and supports for individuals with frequent and long-term hospitalizations within the behavioral health system 
Advocate for increased oversight and accountability at youth RTFs
  • Advocacy to increase oversight and accountability at youth residential treatment systems to improve services and eliminate the use of harmful interventions and restraints in residential treatment facilities serving youth 
Build and strengthen coalitions/support disability-led organizations and groups
  • Build and strengthen coalitions, and support disability-led organizations and groups, like Breaking Silences Advisory Committee, the Ohio Olmstead Task Force, and the centers for independent living. 
Educate legislators on policy proposals that impact the rights of people with disabilities
  • Educate and inform legislators on policy proposals and issues that impact and protect the rights of people with disabilities. 
Increasing positive educational outcomes for students with disabilities. 
Develop informational materials and conduct brief advice clinics/trainings
  • Develop and disseminate informational materials and conduct trainings on rights and remedies to students with disabilities, parents, and stakeholders, including regularly held legal advice clinics to better educate families about their rights and promote self-advocacy. 
Systemic and individual advocacy for school-based MH services and PBIS
  • Engage in systemic and individual advocacy to address inadequate access to programming and individualized educational services (such as school-based mental health services and positive behavioral interventions and supports), the use of seclusion and restraint, the use of discipline (suspensions, expulsions), and the school-to-prison pipeline, particularly for those placed in the most restrictive settings. 
Monitor DOE settlement agreement implementation and advocate in DOE districts
  • Monitor implementation of the DOE settlement agreement and collaborate with community organizations, and provide short-term assistance or individual advocacy, as appropriate, to the students, parents, and families in the eleven DOE school districts to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. 
Fellowship counties I&R and advocacy
  • Provide short-term assistance or individual advocacy, as appropriate, on special education issues to the students, parents, and families in the special education fellowship counties to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. 
Review access to education and transition services at PRTFs and RTFs and connect youth to supports
  • Review the quality of and access to education and transition services provided by youth residential treatment and secure care facilities (such as Department of Youth Services and Community Corrections Facilities) to improve educational services and work with stakeholders to connect transition-age youth to community supports and services. 
Information, referrals, or short-term assistance to students with disabilities and their families
  • Provide information, referrals, or short-term assistance to students with disabilities and their families to support their self-advocacy. 
Systemic and policy advocacy with stakeholders, advocates, and DEW
  • Engage in policy advocacy with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, and other stakeholders and advocates to improve Ohio’s special education system. 
Transition-age advocacy and outreach focused on employment and VR services
  • Provide self-advocacy materials and resources, conduct trainings and outreach, and engage in individual and systemic advocacy for transition-age youth and their families, to help students access integrated, competitive employment and vocational rehabilitation services. 
Promoting equity and increasing positive employment outcomes for people with disabilities to prepare for, enter, or remain in the workplace. 
Seneca Re-Ad litigation
  • Continue work on the Seneca Re-Ad litigation to ensure the rights of individuals working in non-integrated work environments are protected, including minimum wage and reasonable accommodations necessary to eliminate discrimination. 
WIPA
  • Provide benefits counseling under the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance program within our northern and western county area in Ohio, using the priorities set by the Social Security Administration (including a focus on transition-age youth and veterans), and referrals from the Ticket to Work helpline and Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities. 
ADA Title I employment reasonable accommodations
  • To support competitive employment, provide information, referrals, or short-term assistance on employment discrimination issues in which an employer has denied a person reasonable accommodations for their disability. 
Advocate for vocational and employment supports for individuals with IDD in state licensed or state operated facilities
  • Advocate for vocational and employment supports and opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in state licensed or state operated facilities. 

Support beneficiaries of Social Security and Vocational Rehabilitation participants achieve positive employment outcomes by:

Provide short-term assistance/I&R to eliminate barriers to employment for SS beneficiaries
  • Providing short-term assistance, information, or referrals to eliminate barriers in securing, maintaining, or regaining employment. 
Advocate for students to access accommodations in post-secondary programs
  • Advocating for students to access needed accommodations in their post-secondary programs. 
Advocate for people with disabilities to access VR or independent living services
  • Assisting with issues accessing vocational rehabilitation services or independent living services by providing self-advocacy assistance, information, advice, negotiation, and, when appropriate, advocacy within the administrative hearing process. 
Information and referral to SS beneficiaries and VR participants on disability-related financial tools
  • Providing information and referrals to Social Security beneficiaries and vocational rehabilitation participants on disability-related financial issues and resources, such as Ticket to Work, Medicaid Buy-In, STABLE Accounts, and work related overpayments to further financial independence and security. 
Advocate for rules, policies, and procedures that promote VR service access and meaningful work
  • Advocating for rules, policies, and procedures in Ohio’s vocational rehabilitation system that promote full access to all services needed for people with disabilities to pursue work that is tailored to their needs and strengths. 
Conduct outreach and trainings on employment discrimination and accessing VR services
  • Developing resources and providing trainings on employment discrimination and accessing vocational rehabilitation services. 
Blanket denials by OOD
  • Addressing blanket denials by Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities through individual advocacy or litigation where services are denied without individual analysis or because of policies that conflict with federal law. 
Protecting people with disabilities in facilities from abuse, neglect, and rights violations. 
Facility monitoring visits in state-licensed or state-operated facilities
  • Conduct monitoring activities in state-licensed or state-operated segregated facilities regarding rights education and protection, environmental conditions, and level of care/treatment standards to advocate for and protect the rights of individuals with disabilities. 
Investigations of abuse, neglect, or exploitation
  • Investigate allegations of abuse, neglect and exploitation in a variety of state-licensed or state-operated segregated settings, particularly in instances where there are allegations of suspicious deaths, serious injury resulting in hospitalization, restraint and seclusion that is frequent and reoccurring or for long periods of time, and sexual abuse and human trafficking. 
Advocate for access to the internet/psychiatric advance directives in state regional psychiatric hospitals
  • Advocate for strategies that promote successful long-term stability and supports in the community, specifically access to the internet for individuals with long term stays in state regional psychiatric hospitals and the use of psychiatric advance directives across the care continuum. 
Systemic advocacy to prevent overreliance on locked BH units in NF
  • Engage in systemic advocacy to prevent unjustified placements and continued stays on locked behavioral health units in nursing homes for individuals with a mental health diagnosis, with a focus on individualized resident involvement in reassessments and discharge planning processes to promote community connection. 
Advocate for mental health services to prevent solitary confinement/improve constant watch in jails and prisons
  • Advocate for access to mental health services to prevent long-term or reoccurring solitary confinement, including extended periods of constant watch, in jails and prisons. 
Systemic advocacy on effective communication and access to AT for people in jails/prisons
  • Advocate for effective communication and access to assistive technology for people in prisons or jails to ask for services or raise concerns, to access medical and mental health services, and to talk safely to an attorney and visitors. 
Ensuring voters with disabilities have equal access to voting systems and the information and resources they need to enforce their rights.
Advocate for voting accessibility including election day hotline
  • Provide information and referrals, short-term assistance, and legal advocacy for voting accessibility issues, including operating a voter hotline on Election Day. 
Provide information and resources to support voters with disabilities
  • Provide information and resources to support voters with disabilities 
Voter outreach in facilities
  • Outreach to disabled people in a variety of state-licensed, state-operated, and peer -operated settings to provide voting rights information and education 
Policy and systemic voting advocacy
  • Advocacy to protect the right to vote for people with disabilities. 
Implementing Social Security representative payee review program. 
Rep payee
  • Review at least 135 representative payees, as well as engaging in Quick Reviews and other activities, like assistance in implementing corrective action plans, as needed to implement the representative payee grant.
Conduct outreach to places where Social Security beneficiaries receive services.
  • Make referrals to outside programs as well as other protection and advocacy programs to address problems identified during reviews, including collaborating with DRO’s abuse and neglect team for referrals of abuse or neglect and conditions issues.
Taking necessary steps to enforce DRO’s statutory access under federal law to facilities, individuals, and their records.
Enforce federal and state statutory access authority
  • As the protection and advocacy system for Ohio, DRO has federal and state authority to monitor any facility or service provider in the state providing care or treatment to individuals with disabilities, or to investigate incidents of abuse and neglect of individuals with disabilities. DRO will enforce this access authority when necessary to fulfill its role as Ohio’s protection and advocacy system. 
Conducting outreach and training to people with disabilities, their families, and advocates, with a focus on those who need us the most. 
Conduct outreach to those most in need of training and education on disability services
  • Conduct outreach to those most in need of training and education on disability services, such as home and community-based waiver programs, and disability rights, including requesting reasonable accommodations.
Develop plain language training and informational resources
  • Develop plain language training and informational resources including webinars, short videos, templates, and FAQs for areas where DRO is unable to provide direct legal assistance.
Assist people with disabilities to advocate for their civil rights and access to services 

DRO has limited resources and cannot meet all the advocacy needs of people with disabilities and their families across the state. Our goal is to provide individuals with disabilities with the information and tools to advocate for themselves to get the services and supports they need. In some cases where self-advocacy assistance cannot resolve the issue and DRO has sufficient resources, DRO may be able to provide additional help such as negotiation or limited legal representation on the following issues:

Fair housing
  • Fair housing rights, including a landlord’s refusal to provide reasonable accommodations (e.g., accessible parking) or to allow reasonable modifications (physical modifications to one’s dwelling) that have a significant impact on one’s ability to use and enjoy their home, do daily tasks, have their needs met, or be integrated in their community. 
Access to public programs and places of public accommodations
  • Access to places of public accommodations (such as businesses and doctor offices) and government programs and services (such as county boards or courts) with a focus on those who face multiple complex barriers to access. 
Access to assistive technology to prevent and redress harm
  • Access to assistive technology, the lack of which causes a significant and negative impact on access to programs, services, housing, transportation, independent living or medical care. 
Guardianship rights and supported decision-making
  • Rights within the guardianship process, including less restrictive alternatives such as supported decision-making, legal representation at a probate court hearing, notice of a hearing or the right to attend, or the right to an independent evaluation.
Information and referrals on developmental residential services
  • Information and referrals on developmental disability residential services (including home and community-based services, the right to reside and receive ICF services under Medicaid, etc.,) designed to maximize an individual’s potential and provide the least restrictive setting for their personal liberty. 
General information and referrals 

The level of assistance and advice depends on several factors, including:

  • whether there is legal merit (meaning the facts and law support what the individual wants);
  • whether the type of issue and the individual’s situation is able to be resolved with self-advocacy assistance; and
  • whether DRO has the necessary resources (attorney time, funding grant resources, and restrictions of individual grants, etc.).

There are many types of requests for advice and assistance where DRO does not have the staff resources, funding, or expertise to provide any individualized legal advice or assistance. Generally, this will include requests in the following areas, though this is not a complete list:

  • Eligibility for Social Security disability insurance or Supplemental Security Income benefits.
  • Veteran benefits.
  • Victims of crime services.
  • Other abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation by a service provider or guardian, not covered above.
  • Parental or custody issues.
  • Evictions or general landlord-tenant issues, housing conditions.
  • Housing discrimination where a request for reasonable accommodation has not yet been made, or where only general information on reasonable accommodations is needed.
  • Complaints about one’s current attorney.
  • Complaints about medical professionals or other licensed professionals.
  • Criminal or forensic matters.
  • Nursing facility discharge notices.
  • Personal injuries.
  • Employment discrimination where the employee has already been terminated.
  • Other prison or jail issues not covered above, including where a person incarcerated in a prison has concerns about general medical care.
  • Complaints or questions from people in mental health facilities, including those involving voluntary or involuntary admissions to psychiatric hospitals.
  • Denials of Waiver services issues, such as number of service hours or denial of specific waiver services.
  • Post-secondary accommodations except where the individual is a social security beneficiary or working with Vocational Rehabilitation services through Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD).
  • Wills and trusts.

 

DRO has a self-advocacy resource page with informational materials on many issues, including some of the areas listed above.



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