This session will address the rights of people with disabilities to access the courts and the inadequacies of established procedures to provide reasonable accommodations to individuals who need them in order to be able to fully participate in court proceedings. Two states, Washington and Illinois, have created a clear process to receive and process requests for reasonable accommodations that have provided clarity to both people who request accommodations as well as to court staff. The presenters will discuss both the established processes in Washington and Illinois in addition to their efforts at Cleveland Legal Aid to develop a similar procedure in Ohio through the creation of proposed statewide rules and advocacy, the drafting of uniform documents that can be used to request reasonable accommodations, and the development of systemic litigation efforts to force change. The session will also address the difficulties that people with disabilities face with respect to accessing the court system and requesting accommodations.

• Understand the basic requirements of the ADA as applied to court systems with respect to not only litigants, but also anyone else involved with the court process.
• Develop form requests and explain to clients and other people who need to request accommodations about the process required by the ADA to request those accommodations.
• Identify ADA violations and develop systemic litigation to address those issues on a broader scale.
• Engage community partners in listening sessions and learn more about how to incorporate feedback from people who can't obtain accommodations into your litigation and advocacy strategy.