{"id":7291,"date":"2025-03-06T16:33:05","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T21:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedems.com\/mccann\/?p=7291"},"modified":"2025-03-06T16:33:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T21:33:06","slug":"virtual-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/2025\/03\/06\/virtual-participation\/","title":{"rendered":"McCann Reintroduces Legislation to Allow Virtual Participation for People with Disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bill would allow appointed officers with disabilities to participate remotely in public bodies
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<\/i><\/span>LANSING, Mich. (March 6, 2025) \u2013 Today, Sen. Sean McCann<\/b> (D-Kalamazoo) introduced Senate Bill 129<\/a><\/u><\/span> that would amend Michigan\u2019s Open Meetings Act to allow for virtual participation for persons with disabilities who request accommodation to participate and vote in public bodies. This bill would not apply to individuals directly elected by the electors to office. It would also require those members participating remotely to be in Michigan at the time of the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a disability should not be a barrier to an individual\u2019s opportunity to participate and serve on a publicly appointed body,\u201d Sen. McCann <\/b>said. \u201cIt is a fundamental right in this country to participate in these types of discussions and decision making, yet far too often arranging critical needs like adequate and appropriate transportation can put an unfair burden on a person with a disability and may prevent them from attending and participating in a public body in person. This bill allows for reasonable accommodation to ensure Michigan residents with disabilities have the same accessible opportunities to participate in public bodies as everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2022, Attorney General Dana Nessel<\/b> issued an opinion<\/a><\/u><\/span> indicating that state boards must hold meetings in person under the Open Meetings Act (OMA), but that individual members with disabilities must be allowed to participate remotely under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). An excerpt of the opinion reads:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my opinion, therefore, that the Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act require state and local boards and commissions to provide reasonable accommodations, which could include an option to participate virtually, to qualified individuals with a disability who request an accommodation in order to fully participate as a board or commission member or as a member of the general public in meetings that are required by the Open Meetings Act to be held in a place available to the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/i>\u201cThis creates an equal playing field, ensuring full, barrier-free access for people with disabilities to participate through a virtual platform,\u201d said Mona Khaled<\/b>, Disability Network Southwest Michigan\u2019s Interim Executive Director. \u201cThis is not special treatment \u2014 it\u2019s equity.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Bill would allow appointed officers with disabilities to participate remotely in public bodies LANSING, Mich. (March 6, 2025) \u2013 Today, Sen. Sean McCann (D-Kalamazoo) introduced Senate Bill 129 that would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\nMcCann Reintroduces Legislation to Allow Virtual Participation for People with Disabilities - Senator Sean McCann<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"McCann Reintroduces Legislation to Allow Virtual Participation for People with Disabilities\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/2025\/03\/06\/virtual-participation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"McCann Reintroduces Legislation to Allow Virtual Participation for People with Disabilities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"McCann Reintroduces Legislation to Allow Virtual Participation for People with Disabilities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/2025\/03\/06\/virtual-participation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Senator Sean McCann\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-06T21:33:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-06T21:33:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/01\/capitol-10-1024x576-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/2025\/03\/06\/virtual-participation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/2025\/03\/06\/virtual-participation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/#\/schema\/person\/d70eb43c43b9d6128dac1bd664ee6466\"},\"headline\":\"McCann Reintroduces Legislation to Allow Virtual Participation for People with Disabilities\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-06T21:33:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-06T21:33:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/2025\/03\/06\/virtual-participation\/\"},\"wordCount\":460,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/2025\/03\/06\/virtual-participation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/01\/capitol-10-1024x576-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Press Release\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/2025\/03\/06\/virtual-participation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/mccann\/2025\/03\/06\/virtual-participation\/\",\"name\":\"McCann Reintroduces Legislation to Allow Virtual Participation for People with Disabilities - 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