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News from LRS - August 2011
News from LRS is the monthly newsletter from the Ohio Legal Rights Services (LRS) providing information and updates about case work and activities of LRS, and other disability-related news.
In this issue:
- LRS files complaint against college for failure to provide accommodation
- General Assembly approves changes to Election Law
- Attend LRS' next Work Incentives Seminar Event (WISE)
- LRS staff and commission member recognized
- Action and results: Case summaries
- National Preparedness Month - Are you prepared?
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LRS files complaint against college for failure to provide accommodation
LRS filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio Western Division on behalf of a client who is a college student with a disability. The case involves a college's failure to provide the client with a reasonable accommodation that would allow him to attend classes on the college's campus. This violates his rights to be free from discrimination and to equal access to the college's facilities and participation in its program under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The client drives a van that is modified for his wheelchair. To safely enter and exit his van, he must use a ramp on the right side of the vehicle, which requires sufficient space to deploy the ramp. Although the client purchased a parking pass and informed the college that he requires an accessible parking space with direct access to his classes, the college failed to ensure the accessible parking spaces were available to him at all times when he is accessing the college's facilities, and that no other vehicles block or impede his use of that space. The consistent lack of accessible parking spaces caused him to miss many classes. In addition, he received an injury when he was not able to safely enter his van because a car parked next to him and blocked his entrance to the van. The injury caused him to miss a quarter of school and delay his graduation date. The college still has not provided a reasonable accommodation to the client to attend classes on campus.
LRS, in its complaint, also asked the court to require the college to pay compensatory damages to the client for harm incurred in the form of physical injury, pain and emotional suffering and loss of equal benefit to his education and loss of tuition.
For more information, read the complaint: Ashland v. Cincinnati State Technical and Community College (PDF file). You can also follow updates on this case and others in LRS' online Legal Library.
General Assembly approves changes to Election Law
The 129th Ohio General Assembly recently passed House Bill 194. This bill makes numerous changes to the state's electoral and voting process. Some of the major highlights of this bill include:
- Decreasing the time frame for casting absentee ballots in person from 30 to 17 days.
- Decreasing the time frame for casting absentee ballots by mail from 35 to 21 days.
- Prohibiting Ohio counties from mailing unsolicited absentee ballot applications to all registered voters. The Secretary of State, however, issued a directive clarifying that a county board of elections may place applications for absent voter's ballots on its website or at various public places, such as libraries. Furthermore, receipt of a request for application in writing (which need not be in any particular form); a verbal request for application in person or by phone; or the completion of an automated form of application, such as an automated phone system or online website form, initiated by the individual voter constitutes a proper request for an application for absentee voter's ballot and is not prohibited.
- Requiring voters to request an absentee ballot application (see above). Voters do not have to provide a reason for making a request.
- Eliminating questions that precinct officials can ask to challenge a voter based on his or her citizenship or political affiliation.
- Requiring voters to use the last four digits of their Social Security number if they choose that as their identifier on an absentee ballot or to cast a provisional ballot. This provision originally required voters to provide their 9 digit Social Security number but was later modified to current law of only requiring the last four digits.
- Eliminating the ability for people to register and vote on the same day.
- Eliminating the requirement that poll workers help voters find their correct precincts.
- Increasing the maximum time a voter may occupy a voting booth or machine from five to ten minutes when they are all in use and voters are waiting to use them. The bill specifies that this time limit does not apply to a person with a disability who requires an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
- Permitting, instead of requiring, an election official to direct a voter who is in the wrong precinct to the voter's correct precinct.
- Eliminating the ten-day period to provide additional information when an elector does not provide identification or documentation to resolve a polling place challenge.
- Prohibiting a public school, a community school, a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) school or a chartered non-public school from transporting students to a polling place during regular school hours to cast a ballot.
Group challenges Election Law Changes
These electoral reforms will go into effect on September 30, 2011 unless a group seeking to overturn those changes collects enough valid signatures to qualify the referendum for next year's November ballot. Fair Elections Ohio is seeking to overturn the entire law if it can successfully collect 231,184 valid signatures by September 30, 2011.
LRS provides voting resources and assistance
Assistance: If you have questions or concerns about these election law changes, your voting rights, accessibility issues or if you have been discriminated against when trying to vote because of your disability, please contact the LRS Intake department at 614-466-7264 or 800-282-9181 or (TTY) 614-728-2553 or (TTY) 800-858-3542.
Voter alerts: Leading up to November's General Election, LRS will send Voter Alerts to our newsletter subscription list with important reminders and voting deadline notices. If you currently do not receive our newsletter via email, please join our email list.
Resources: LRS provides online publications and links to other resources about voter rights and assistance for people with disabilities in the Voting section of the LRS website.
Attend LRS' next Work Incentives Seminar Event (WISE)
Do you want to work but wonder how it will affect your Social Security benefits? Do you need help finding a job? Get answers to these questions and more at a free Work Incentives Seminar Event (WISE) hosted by LRS. At the event, you will learn about the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Ticket to Work Program and other work incentives. The event is open to beneficiaries of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
Event information
The WISE event will be held on Wednesday, October 12, 2011 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Cleveland Sight Center, 2843 Washington Blvd. in Cleveland Heights.
To attend, register on SSA's Ticket to Work website. When registering, indicate if you need assistive aides or services, such as a sign language interpreter, Braille or large print. If you have questions or need more information, contact Cathy Royster at LRS at croyster@olrs.state.oh.us or 800-282-9181.
LRS' Online Learning Center offers WISE tutorial
LRS, through its Online Learning Center, also offers an online tutorial based on WISE. Although LRS encourages you to attend an in-person WISE event, you may find the tutorial helpful while waiting to attend the event or as a follow-up after the seminar. There is no need to register for the tutorial. It is available anytime from the LRS website at the Online Learning Center - Work Incentives Seminar Event (WISE).
About LRS and the WIPA Program
The SSA designated LRS as a Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) program serving beneficiaries of SSI or SSDI in 31 of Ohio's 88 counties. The program is designed to assist individuals who wish to secure gainful employment, achieve financial stability and secure affordable health care. The 31 counties LRS provides services for are: Allen, Ashtabula, Auglaize, Cuyahoga, Darke, Defiance, Erie, Fulton, Geauga, Hancock, Henry, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Lucas, Medina, Mercer, Miami, Montgomery, Ottawa, Paulding, Portage, Preble, Putnam, Sandusky, Seneca, Shelby, Trumbull, Van Wert, Williams, and Wood.
Learn more about the LRS WIPA program.
LRS staff and commission member recognized
LRS Supervising Attorney Kristin Hildebrant was appointed by Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA) President Carol Seubert Marx to lead OSBA's Education Law Committee. The committee is one of 40 OSBA standing committees that review pending legislation, draft legislative proposals and develop projects and programs designed to improve the legal system in Ohio. At LRS, Hildebrant represents children and families in special education cases and class-action litigation.
LRS Commissioner Patrick Risser received a Consumer Leadership Award from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The award was presented to Risser in August during the 2011 Voice Awards at Paramount Theater in Hollywood, California. SAMHSA recognized Risser for being "a tireless and effective advocate for mental health consumers for more than 25 years, and a human rights activist for most of his life." Read more about Risser and the other award recipients at the Voice Awards website.
Action and results: Case summaries
Services support community living for LRS client
Moving into the community is a reality for an LRS client after receiving services that support him to live independently. The client, who was living in a nursing home while recovering from a serious accident, needed a power wheelchair to allow him to regain his independent lifestyle. Medicaid refused payment for the power wheelchair, stating he had to be living at home or independently before the wheelchair would be covered. Without the power wheelchair, though, the client had to rely on nursing home staff to push him around in a manual wheelchair. As a result, he was mostly confined to his bed in the nursing home and could not continue his recovery efforts.
LRS provided information to the client about Medicaid's responsibilities in covering the purchase of a power wheelchair for nursing facility residents and LRS recommended he apply for the HOME Choice program. He was already on the waiting list for an Ohio Home Care Waiver.
After being approved for the waiver and the HOME Choice program, the client moved back into the community with his father and girlfriend. His power wheelchair is on order and transition funds from the HOME Choice program paid for a generator that is necessary to keep his medical equipment running if the power goes out.
LRS client wins Medicaid appeal to receive ABA therapy services
A client now receives Medicaid coverage of Advanced Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy after several prior authorization requests were denied by the his Managed Care Plan (MCP). The MCP had stated in its denials that ABA therapy is considered experimental and investigational in the treatment of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) and, therefore, does not meet the generally accepted standards of medical practice.
LRS represented the client throughout the Medicaid appeals process and assisted the client's parent with providing clinical evidence supporting the prior authorization requests, along with court decisions contradicting the MCP's position that ABA is experimental. The hearing officer found that the weight of the evidence shows that the ABA therapy is not experimental and is warranted in the treatment of PDD. The hearing officer recommended the appeal be sustained and directed the MCP to approve the request for ABA therapy effective back to the original request in July 2010.
Housing accommodation allows client to store medical equipment
A client living in an apartment won the right to a reasonable accommodation, with assistance from LRS, to have a second bedroom to store her durable medical equipment under Section 8 of the Housing Choice Voucher Program. The accommodation lowered her monthly rent payment and was applied retroactively, so she received a lump sum payment for past rent she paid in excess of the monthly rent amount with the accommodation.
National Preparedness Month - Are you prepared?
The 8th annual National Preparedness Month kicks off in September and this year's slogan is "A Time to Remember. A Time to Prepare." Recent events, such as Hurricane Irene and the earthquake in Virginia, remind us of the need to prepare for emergencies. Emergencies are situations that are unexpected, sudden, and often dangerous. Whether they are natural disasters, man-made disasters or personal emergencies, having a plan in place is crucial, especially for people with disabilities. It is important to create an emergency plan now - before an emergency or disaster happens.
Be Prepared Kit
LRS offers an online Emergency Management "Be Prepared Kit" to guide you in creating your own emergency preparedness plan. The kit includes several forms and checklists for you to complete and is available in several downloadable formats:
- Web/text: Print the web page and then complete the form.
- PDF: Download and print the PDF and then complete the form.
- PDF for printing booklets: Download to use for printing copies in a booklet format.
- PDF fillable form: Complete the PDF form online and then print.
To read and download the kit, go to Emergency Management "Be Prepared Kit".
LRS developed the Be Prepared Kit in partnership with the Ohio Department of Health, Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, Ohio Department of Aging, Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council, Ohio State University Nisonger Center UCEDD, University of Cincinnati UCEDD and Governor's Council on People with Disabilities.