COLUMBUS, Ohio—For more than a decade, Disability Rights Ohio has been the state’s official advocate for people with disabilities, with powers no other nonprofit in Ohio has to file lawsuits on their behalf and investigate suspected abuse or neglect.
However, language inserted into the Ohio Senate’s two-year state budget plan is trying to change that. If passed, it would recommend that Gov. Mike DeWine no longer designate Disability Rights Ohio as the state’s protection and advocacy system for the disabled. Under a 2000 federal law, each state and territory must have a protection and advocacy system, or “P&A,” designated by the state’s governor.
