Perseverance, Tenacity Pay Off
For NYSILC Chief Brad
Williams 
By Susan Cohen
Brad Williams, executive director of the New York State
Independent Living Council and an avid supporter of voting rights, has been a
disability advocate since 1990. He has a long list of accomplishments under his
belt and has been honored numerous times.
He has won the 2002 Ted Weiss Consumer Advocacy Award
(from the Brain Injury Association of New York State), the 2003 Regional
Advocacy Award (National Council on Independent Living), the 2004 National
Thomas Paine Award (American Association of People with Disabilities), the 2005
Dr. Henry Viscardi, Jr. Award (New York state Assembly/Disability Awareness
Day) and the 2007 Justin Dart Award for Political Advocacy (the 504 Democratic
Club).
Williams, born in 1959 in Glens Falls, N.Y., was not a
typical academic who excelled in his studies. He was an artist and a star
soccer player who helped Glens Falls High earn back-to-back sectional and
intersectional titles in the fall of 1975 and 1976 during his sophomore and
junior years.
Toward the end of his junior year, in the spring of 1977,
Williams was recruited by Hartwick College, which planned to offer him a soccer
scholarship. (Hartwick was on the verge of winning the NCAA Division I national
soccer championship, which occurred in the fall of 1977.) It was anticipated
that Williams would start for the college's soccer team in the fall of 1978
after his graduation. Those dreams were dashed when he broke his leg during the
summer of 1977.
“This was a difficult time,” Williams said.
“I was playing soccer with college-aged athletes while I was only 17. As a
result of the bad break, I was forced to miss the first half of my senior year
rehabilitating my leg and, therefore, did not graduate with my class. I did not
graduate until December of 1978.”
After the accident, Hartwick denied him a soccer
scholarship. “They viewed me as damaged goods,” Williams said.
“I was very disappointed.”
As a result, Williams considered going to Adirondack
Community College, a two-year college in Queensbury, N.Y. That's when he
realized he had a problem.
“It was not until my brother assisted me with a
college essay to enter junior college that it was publicly recognized that I
could not read, write, spell or do grammar in the correct way,” he said.
Despite those challenges, Williams still passed the
English Regents exam. “I attribute this to my ability to review my work
and compensate for my disability. I learned different ways of doing things and
adapted to them so I could get by. Doing well took a lot of effort.”
It was later discovered that Williams had suffered a
childhood head injury that had gone undetected.
At Adirondack, Williams met Shirley Weiner, his English
101 professor. “She was the first to take the time to show me that I
needed help if I was going to succeed.” As a result, Williams worked for a
year in the English lab, learning how to read and write.
He learned to write poetry in a creative writing course
taught by Jean Rikhoff. "She continued to encourage me to keep writing despite
possible frustration,” he said.
After Adirondack Community College, he attended the
University at Albany, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political
science in 1984. In 1990, he earned a master's degree in public administration
from Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y.
At the NYSILC, Williams relies heavily on his writing
ability, and he attributes his success to Weiner and Rikhoff. Independence
Today recently spoke to him about his life and philosophy.
Q: When did you decide to go into the field
of disability advocacy?
A: I started working at the Schenectady Association for
Retarded Citizens (ARC) in 1986 when I was working on my master's degree. As I
was learning about my own disability, I was helping others. This was a good
place to start my career.
Q: What was your favorite accomplishment as a
center for independent living director in Glens Falls (where he worked from
1990 to 1999)?
A: I found working at the independent living center
a good outlet for my creative ideas. We were the first to establish a center
for adaptive computer technology in our area. This provided access to
technology for individuals with disabilities. As a result, we earned a TRAID
(Technology Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities ) grant from
the former advocate’s office. We developed other programs from there.
Q: What is your philosophy of disability advocacy?
A: In the disability movement, there is so much to
do. You have to make hard decisions on what you focus your time and energy on.
You have to ask yourself what area can you have the most impact on and then be
willing to work on it like a pit bull.
Q: On which issue do you believe you had had the greatest
effect while working at NYSILC?
A: Voting access for persons with disabilities has
been our main focus, in addition to running the SILC and meeting those
responsibilities. We have worked to improve polling place access and the
purchase of accessible voting technology. Now we need to focus on poll-worker
training and getting persons with disabilities out to vote. Our long-term goal
is to establish a disability voting bloc in New York state.
Q: Under federal law, NYSILC is mandated to develop the
State Plan for IL in partnership with the designated state unit (DSU). VESID,
the New York state vocational rehabilitation agency, is the DSU involved in the
plan. How would you describe NYSILC's relationship with VESID?
A: In New York’s case, we are set up as a 501(c)(3)
(a tax-exempt organization). Our SILC is an equal partner with the DSU. This
partnership is like a marriage. Different issues test the relationship. How you
handle these issues is what determines the success of the partnership.
Q: How do you feel the disability movement will be
affected by the new makeup of Congress?
A: This past Congress had the greatest opportunity
to influence change in quite a while. We had the rare opportunity to make great
change quickly. However, the makeup of Congress has recently changed, and we
can expect progress at a slower pace. The key is in the ability of our leaders
to meet (on) middle ground. In recent memory, during the Clinton
administration, the president was a moderate Democrat and the Senate
leadership, directed by Bob Dole, was a moderate Republican. They were able to
reach agreement on a balanced budget, which led to record surpluses.
(To learn more about NYSILC and Brad Williams, visit
www.NYSILC.org.)
Susan Cohen is a disability advocate and director of
Voting Access Solutions. She can be reached at
votingaccesssolutions@gmail.com. |
