Advocacy Materials

Find out how we promote policy changes for the better for people with disabilities. You can also find our recommendations, white papers, and public comments here.

Listed below are Ability Center recommendations, editorials, white papers, and comments on policy issues impacting people with disabilities.

Surveys

From July through November 2015, The Ability Center of Greater Toledo promoted a transportation needs assessment aimed towards those who use public transportation in northwest Ohio to give feedback on how the state of public transportation affects their quality of life. In short, how easily they are able to get around. The survey was aimed to get a sense of who uses public transportation what problems do they experience, and where do they want to go.

Amicus Briefs

The Ability Center of Greater Toledo, Toledo Fair Housing Center, and Disability Rights Ohio filed a joint Amicus Brief in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case involving a woman whose request for a reasonable accommodation was ignored by the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority. The woman has a physical disability that makes it difficult for her to move up and down steps. When her two-story apartment became too difficult for her to live in, she provided a doctor’s note to LMHA asking that she be able to move her Section 8 Voucher to a one-level unit. Rather than grant her permission to move, LMHA did not respond to her request.

At trial, the jury decided against her when the judge failed to inform them that an unreasonable delay in granting a reasonable accommodation can constitute a denial of that accommodation. The Ability Center of Greater Toledo, Toledo Fair Housing Center, and DRO disagree with the Court’s failure to instruct the jury on that issue of law and have filed an Amicus Brief in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals asking the Sixth Circuit to remand the case.