SELF Waiver Handbook is a Medicaid program that can pay for the services a person with developmental disabilities needs. A waiver is one way to pay for services. Services can be things like help cooking food or doing laundry, help getting around, or help finding a job. SELF is short for Self-Empowered Life Funding and is Ohio’s first participant-directed waiver. Participant-direction means that the person getting services makes decisions about their waiver services and helps manage them.