After Corey Axelrod became president of the Illinois Association of the Deaf last year, he says he started a series of conversations with the state commission’s executive staff.

But he says those conversations hit a wall, when he asked the directors for help advocating for new legislation and better services.

“They just basically said, ‘The governor’s office said we cannot do that. We are simply an information-referral agency.’

State law explicitly refers to the commission as “a coordinating and advocating body.”

The governor’s office denies having said the commission was only an information-referral agency.