1. Making
Your Case
Commission of
Deaf, DeafBlind and
Hard of Hearing Minnesotans
With MCDHH Executive Director Mary
Hartnett and
Trudy Suggs of
T.S. Writing Services

2. 2
Purpose of Presentation
 Build on the great success of Massachusetts- ASL
Laws, Interpreter Laws, Telecommunications,
Preventing Budget Cuts, Deaf Child’s Bill of Rights
 Learn about the Minnesota Experience and apply
lessons learned from case studies
 Learn the skills and strategies needed to increase
influence in public policy

3. 3
What is Public Policy?
o Public policy is the set of decisions
that we make at every level of
government about how money is
spent and the rules we live by.

4. Congratulations on Your 4
Recent Success
Not only have did you prevent
budget cuts, but this year you are
asking for money to be restored!

5. Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind and
Hard of Hearing Minnesotans
(MCDHH)
 Is a governor-appointed commission
advocating for and with people who are
deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing
 Successful advocacy happens:
 By people themselves
 Through alliances
 With clear and driven goals

6. 6
How we operate
 Policy and advocacy goals set by diverse
stakeholders in the community who drive the
process.
 Develop a strategic plan every 5 years: survey,
interview key stakeholders and hold focus
groups.
 Priorities set, plan developed.
 Legislative proposals presented and reviewed
yearly.

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Examples of Legislation
 EHDI Mandate  Funds for transition program for
transition aged youth.
 Deaf Mentors for Families
 Minnesota Employment Center for
 Parent Guides for Familes Deaf and Hard of Hearing
 Hearing aid loaner bank
 Technology Standards
 Mandated Coordinator in Dept of
 Captioning for Greater MN
Education for children birth to 3
 Candidates who receive public
 Mandate for data collection on financing must caption their ads
outcomes for d/hh/db kids and
and improvement plan

8. Example Minnesota educational
interpreter certification law:
Background
 1994: Educational interpreting law
 Seven years for implementation
 From 4 to over 300 interpreters
 School districts and some interpreters
resisted.
 2007: A Deaf person requests removal
of language

9. Minnesota educational interpreter
certification law: Strategies
 Strategies:
 Establish clear goals
 Meet with each legislator and bill
author
 Check with all stakeholders
 Meet with union representative
 Result: SUCCESS!

10. Testifying: What worked?
 Understand the rules
 Approaching legislators
 Be persistent
 Be visible during hearings
 Know who you’re talking to
 Learn about legislators and
their backgrounds

11. Lessons learned:
Educational interpreting law
 Always have an eye—or 20—on
existing and new legislation.
 Ensure all parties involved have
accurate information.
 Have solid alliances and networks in
place.
 Know who to contact.
 Be prepared.

12. Making Your Case course
 Produced by MNCDHH
 Created by ZenMation
 T.S. Writing Services
 Digiterp Communications
 Signed by Deaf narrators
 Is based on curriculum for other disability groups
 Contains seven modules
 Information
 Activities
 Case studies

13. Let’s get started!
 Module 1: Getting Started
 Module 2: Changing the System
 Module 3: Building Your Case
 Module 4: Making Your Case in Writing
 Module 5: Making Your Case In Person
 Module 6: Keeping It Going
 Module 7: Conclusion

14. Ten-step advocacy process
• Identify your issue. • Get to the right
person.
• Develop your story.
• Define your • Choose your
request. tactics.
• Get the facts. • Create a detailed
plan.
• Find allies.
• Take action.
• Keep it going.

15. Course objectives
 Understand how public  Write effective letters and
policy is made and who e-mails
makes it
 Conduct meetings with
 Understand the advocacy policymakers
process and apply it to
your situation
 Give effective testimony
and answer questions
 Tell your story in writing
 Work with others to tackle
and in person
community issues
 Know how to identify the
policymakers who can help
bring about the changes
you need

16. How to tell your story:
Which is better?
 Option 1: My son needs more special education
services.
OR
 Option 2: My creative, inquisitive son Mickey is
deaf. He’s a math whiz but he can’t explore ways to
use this because there is a math club at his school
but the school won’t provide an interpreter for this
after-school activity.

17. What’s your story?
 A good story:
 Introduces you and your family.
 Focuses on one thing.
 Explains your situation.
 Has enough details to make it interesting.
 Includes only information that relates to the
situation or your goal.
 Reminds the policymaker that you are a
constituent.
 Captures your emotion and passion for an
issue.
 Asks for a specific action to correct the
situation.

18. Face-to-face meetings
 99% of Congressional staffers believe personal
meetings influence decisions.1
 Ask for support.
 Explain your case.
 Personalize an issue by sharing your story.
 Educate the policymaker.
 Invite the legislator to be involved.
 Respond to and/or evaluate the policymaker’s
stance.
1 Source: Communicating with Congress: How Capitol Hill is Coping with the Surge in Citizen Advocacy
http://www.cmfweb.org

19. Providing testimony
 Be prepared.  Request a specific action.
 Meet with interpreters  Have a written version
beforehand. available.
 Keep it short.  Do not read straight from
your paper.
 Follow protocol.
 State your position upfront,
 Don’t repeat other people’s
comments if possible.
then restate it.
 Personalize the issue.
 Watch meetings and
hearings in advance to get
 Use facts. an idea.

20. Accessible E-government 20
services
 Videos produced by the state not  As e-government services
captioned. increased, employment for people
with disabilities in state
 Live-streamed legislative hearings government decreased over a 10-
were not captioned. year period, from 10% to 4%
 Documents and software for
 Met with IT and employees with
citizens and state employees disabilities.
were not accessible to blind and
DB.  Governor didn’t support the
change.
 The state online job application
site was not accessible.

21. 21
Results
 Making Your Case
 Health Care Rights Video  Funds for live captioning online for
legislature
 Capitol Accessibility Series
http://www.mncdhh.org/capitol-  Funds for state CIO
access/#access-ASLVideo
 Funds to teach how to make
 Video Captioning Essentials products accessible
 Accessible Word Webinar  Received funds for ASL video
production- a WCAG 2.0
 Accessible Website Webinar requirement

22. Keep it going
 Keep the Ways to organize the
momentum going community:
 Register to vote  Coalitions
 Media
 Participate in  Internet
community  Rallies
organizing  Petitions
 Communications
 Stay updated
 Public hearings
 Political involvement

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Recent examples
 Medicaid coverage for outpatient
mental health services for deaf
youth
 We notify of email:
http://www.mncdhh.org
 Vlog http:
 Twitter
 Facebook

24. Reminders for working
with policymakers
 Be prepared.  Be patient with the
process.
 Avoid being negative
and focus on the  Know who your
solution. opponents are.
 Focus on the issues, not  Be generous.
personalities.
 Continue to
 Your reputation is communicate.
important.
 Make sure you are
 Be polite even if you registered to vote.
disagree.

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EHDI
 Deaf Mentors
 EHDI Mandate
 EDHI Committee must have deaf
members
 EHDI Coordinator Department of
Ed
 Hearing Aid Loaner Bank
 Parent to Parent Guides

26. Group activity: Signing bus
drivers
 Group A: Argue in favor of requiring
bus drivers to be fluent in ASL and/or
having a supervisor on the bus
 Group B: Argue against this
requirement
 Be sure to:
 Discuss strategies
 Identify allies and opponents

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Training Legislative staff
 Every two years we train legislative staff on how to make the capitol
accessible to people who are deaf
 Training on Deaf Culture, how best to communicate with people who
are hard of hearing and deafblind
 They love it!

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Civic Engagement
 Each election year we apply for and receive funds for voter out reach
from the Secretary of State
 Voter Registration Drives
 Deaf, Hard of Hearing Day at the Twins/Voter Registration
 Collaborate with nonprofits to provide captions/interpreters for candidate
debates
 DeafBlind Vote Ride
 You Decide video on the Secretary of State’s site

29. Thank Legislators 29
and Staff
 Awards
 Thank you notes
 Often
 It makes a big difference
 Invite them to your events and
recognize them there

30. THANK YOU!
www.mncdhh.org/makingyourcase
www.youtube.com/mncdhh
www.facebook.com/mcdhh
www.twitter.com/mncdhh