A self-advocacy story by Tina Fitzgerald

The Problem

In the late 1980s, not one Centro public line bus in Syracuse was accessible. If you used a wheelchair, or if steps were hard for you, you could not ride the regular bus at all.

Our only choice was paratransit, and it ran on a limited schedule. You could not just go where you wanted, when you wanted. That made it hard to get to work, to the doctor, to the store, or to see friends. Public transportation was supposed to be for the public. But people with disabilities were being left at the curb.

We Decided to Act

We were tired of waiting. We were tired of asking and being ignored. So a group of 10 of us made a plan.

We went to the middle of downtown Syracuse. We sat down on the front bumpers of Centro buses. Then we wrapped dog chains around ourselves so no one could pull us off .

The Day the Buses Stopped

The buses could not move. Not one inch.

We sat on those bumpers for about an hour. Downtown traffic backed up. Everyone could see us, and everyone had to think about why we were there.

And we did not do it just once. We went back again and again, in the late 1980s and into the early 1990s. Each time, our message was the same: accessible buses now.

Why It Mattered

We were not trying to cause trouble just to cause trouble. We wanted to be seen and heard. We wanted Centro, and our whole city, to understand that people with disabilities have the right to go where everyone else goes.

Sometimes speaking up means using your words. Sometimes it means using your whole body and refusing to move.

Twenty Years Later

About 20 years later, I got an invitation I never expected. Centro asked me to join its board of directors.

The same company whose buses I chained myself to now wanted my voice at the table. I went from sitting on the bumper to sitting in the boardroom, helping make decisions for the riders I had fought for.

What I Want You to Know

Your voice matters, even when people do not want to hear it.

There is power in numbers. Ten people stopped a whole bus system.

Change can take a long time. Keep going anyway.

The people who fight for change can become the people who lead it.

Nothing about us without us. I lived those words, and I still do.