|
|
 A
link to
navigation |
|
Terry Moakley: Not Just Along for the RideBy Kathi Wolfe This is another in a series of interviews conducted by Independence Today with leaders in the disability rights movement. If you’re unable to work, go to school, shop or socialize, you’re going to have an isolated and impoverished life. Seventeen years after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, many people with disabilities still can’t get to work, school, stores, medical appointments or other places. Some people live in areas that don’t have public transit. Others don’t drive and live in places that don’t have paratransit. In other cases, mass transit isn’t accessible, and paratransit is inadequate or unavailable, even though the ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. For more than 30 years, Terry Moakley, vice president of public affairs at the United Spinal Association in Jackson Heights, N.Y., has been a leading advocate for transportation for people with disabilities. Recently, in a telephone interview from his office, Moakley spoke about advocacy, writing, travel and transportation. Moakley, 62, speaks with the assurance and moxie of a seasoned New Yorker, sometimes interrupting himself in the middle of making one point to interject another telling observation. (“I could talk about taxis forever,” he said at one point, before launching into an analysis of accessible taxi issues). Moakley, though clearly proud of his work, is self-deprecating. When told that his biography is impressive, he laughed and said, “Not that impressive, let me tell you!” During the Vietnam War in 1967, Moakley sustained a spinal cord injury in a stateside diving accident while serving in the United States Marines. “I’m a C6 quadriplegic,” he said, adding, “I didn’t get anywhere near Vietnam, and I’m not sad that I missed it!” After his injury, Moakley received acute care at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland (“The care there was terrific,” he said) before being transferred to the Bronx Veterans Administration care facility. Moakley’s brand of disability advocacy is infused with his determination, enthusiasm, writing skills, straightforwardness and likeability. Moakley, though highly knowledgeable about the ADA and other disability legislation, acknowledged that he wasn’t familiar with specific regulations. For instance, the ADA and Air Carrier Access Act have accessibility requirements regarding transportation for people with disabilities. “I’m a wheelchair user,” he said. “I’m not that familiar with the requirements for people with other disabilities. But they’re there.” About four months after his injury, Moakley became a member of the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association and has worked with the United Spinal Association since 1972. (United Spinal Association was known as EPVA until 2004.) In 1966, Moakley earned a B.A. in English literature from St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y., and in 1975 received his M.A. in English literature from Hofstra University in Long Island, N.Y. His first job was teaching English at a community college. Moakley has served on numerous boards and commissions. From 1988 to 2002, he was a member of the New York State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council, and from 1997 to 2002, he served on the New York State Rehabilitation Council. Currently, Moakley is president and chief operating officer of the Association of Travel Instruction; he has been a member of the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission’s Disability Advisory Board since 1996. Moakley manages United Spinal Association’s Taxis for All North America online advocacy project; he chaired New York City Taxis for All campaign from 1997 to 2006. (He still represents the United Spinal Association on the New York City Taxis for All campaign). “I’ve had a bunch of jobs here (at the United Spinal Association),” Moakley said, “but transportation advocacy has been ... a constant.” He does a lot of writing for the association’s newsletter (“At one time I ran the whole department.”) but doesn’t see himself as a creative writer. “People tell me I’m wrong about that.” Most of what Moakley writes, he said, is “expository” or “persuasive” writing, such as newsletter articles or letters to the editor. He spoke with excitement about the articles that he blogged for the United Spinal Association’s Web site in 2003. “I’ve often thought (about doing more blogging) if the day ever comes when I retire,” Moakley said, “but I like work so much! I’m not even close to being ready to retire.” Since early in his career, Moakley has been instrumental in making transportation accessible to people with disabilities. “ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) takes credit, as they should, for causing transportation provisions to be put into the ADA because in the 1980s they were blocking buses all over the country because of the lack of accessibility,” he said. But in 1979, “we had a lawsuit against New York City. Denise Figueroa (now executive director of the Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley), (the late) Jim Peters, our former executive director and myself were the plaintiffs in that suit.” Much of what happened as a result of the lawsuit “got put into the ADA because it was required in New York City,” he said. That lawsuit and the ADAPT actions are two of the major reasons why “there are a lot more trains and buses out there all over the country today,” Moakley said. Prior to the ADA, Moakley worked for passage of the Air Carrier Access Act, which became law in 1986. In the late 1970s, he worked with a program called Access to the Skies, which no longer exists. “I can remember testing these ... on-board wheelchairs with Itzhak Perlman (the virtuoso violinist who has polio) ... here at Kennedy Airport,” Moakley recalled. The Air Carrier Access Act is complex, Moakley said, “but one of the main things that it has led to is fold-up or removable armrests on new and renovated aircraft.” To a wheelchair user, that makes transferring to an aircraft seat a lot easier, he added. The law also requires a provision for on-board wheelchairs, especially for longer flights and larger aircraft, “so that, with some assistance from the crew, someone who is paralyzed or has difficulty walking can reach the lavatory,” Moakley said. Another provision of the Air Carrier Access Act is that at least one lavatory have “better accessibility features,” Moakley said. These features won’t be perfect, he said, because most commercial airline restrooms “are like closets.”
One of Moakley’s favorite topics is taxis. The main reason people use taxis is to get to work, he said. In places where there is no mass transit or paratransit, taking an accessible cab may be the only option for someone with a disability who can’t drive. But getting accessible taxis throughout the country is still an uphill battle. In New York City, for example, “only 81 out of 13,000 taxis are accessible,” said Moakley. who added he would like to change that nationwide. “Increasing the number of (accessible taxis) is important,” Moakley said. “We don’t see it as displacing paratransit, but complementing it.” If you’re making a short trip, why would you bother calling paratransit 24 hours ahead of time when for a couple of bucks more you could take a cab (if it’s accessible)? “That’s what able-bodied people do,” he said. “Why should we settle for anything less?” Today, Moakley is a man on a mission. Last spring, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that within five years the Yellow Taxi is going green (hybrid) “because it’s better for the environment,” Moakley said. The announcement, however, left out people with disabilities, he said. A bill, which the United Spinal Association helped to write, is pending in the New York City Council that would, within seven years, require not only green, but accessible, cabs, Moakley said. “I believe that if the mayor of New York City ... said that they have to start buying hybrids now, but that beginning in five years they also have to be wheelchair accessible, it would happen,” Moakley said. New York City is the biggest taxi sale market in the country, he said, and “people really do pay attention to what happens here.” In the fall, the Taxis for All campaign is planning to draw media attention to the fact that New York City missed an opportunity for accessibility when it decided to go hybrid, Moakley said. The campaign, he added, is hoping to get national support. There are so many reasons to make taxis accessible, Moakley said. “There’s the aging of the population; people are living and working longer. If you live and work longer, you have a higher percentage of acquiring a disability of some kind.” As people age, many people lose their ability to drive, he said, adding, “More accessibility in taxis makes more sense the more you think about it.” The newest development in accessibility is the Standard Taxi, a prototype developed by Vehicle Production Group LLC, Moakley said. If successful, the vehicle would be the first taxi built as accessible at the factory, he added. “When someone like me (who uses a wheelchair) buys a van or minivan, it goes to a conversion company,” Moakley said. “They lower the floor, put in a ramp or lift or whatever.” This vehicle, which Standard Cab hopes to manufacture by the end of 2008, will “come off the assembly line as accessible,” he said. There’s a lot of interest in this prototype, Moakley said. But “you need to have a lot of money behind you,” he said. “I hope they can do it at a competitive price.” For more information about the ADA and transportation; the Air Carrier Access Act; the Taxis For All campaign fall action; or the Standard Taxi, go to: www.unitedspinal.org or Email: tmoakley@unitedspinal.org. ****************************** Kathi Wolfe, a Washington, D.C., Metro-area writer, was a 1998-99 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow. |
 |
|
|
ABOUT US: Contact InformationEditorial TeamTermsContributorsSubmissions ADERTISING: Opportunities Classified Informercial' Underwriters ARCHIVES: Archived Issues Cover Stories Features MARKET PLACEAdvertisers Products ServicesSubscriptions MISCELANEOUS: More NewsLinks'FeedbackPolls SEARCH: Web site Internet',Donate |
Copyright © 2007 by ILCHV |
