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Strategizing for accessible mass transit, participating in 504 demonstrations to force Secretary Califano to promulgate the regulations

McQuade

The organization obviously went on. The organization brought--along with Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association, but EPVA's lawsuit was the one that won on the state law--they brought the lawsuit against the MTA. They did it under 504--the DOT [Department of Transportation] regs.

There was also a big demonstration in the end of the summer of '78 for a thing called Transbus, which was a low floor bus. Now, low floor buses have been bought by the Transit authorities, started to be used in Munich. What we wanted, way back when, and they said it couldn't be done, was that Ford, General Motors, all these places--not so much Ford, General Motors--they didn't want to retool, bottom line. Then there were debates about later on when we were--there was a transportation disabled committee formed out of the--the lawsuit that was won in '83. There was a coalition called Mobility Through Access, and individuals and DIA and EPVA and any other groups that wanted to push for accessible mass transit, we worked together.

There, there was a strategy, and we basically worked to lobby the state legislature to create an accessible transportation system. What happened was EPVA won the lawsuit under the state building code, that they had to make subways accessible when they renovated them. Immediately the MTA went to the state legislature to get exempted from that, and we all opposed it. They combined DIA's lawsuit with EPVA's lawsuit.

Jacobson

What year was this? I believe 1988 was the year the lawsuit was won.

McQuade

Jim Weissman would have to answer this, or Denise Figueroa, because part of the time she was working for the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, and part of the time she would have been working for EPVA. As far as I remember, that probably was from--let me just backtrack a little bit. From the time I started working for the center in '79, transportation was one of the big, big issues in the city. It was a 504 committee that came up with a 504 plan, because 504 required that buses and things--if you purchased new it had to be accessible.

Jacobson

Were you involved in the 504?

McQuade

No, I wasn't. We supported it, but there were other people on the committee that had been working on it, like some people from our board. Muriel Zardowski was on that; she was on our board. She had MD [musclar dystrophy], I believe, and her husband Vinny Zardowski.

Jacobson

What board?

McQuade

The center's board. I worked for the independent living center from the fall of '79 until December 14, 1992. [Editor's note: In the eighties, the name was changed to Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled.]

Jacobson

But that 504 demonstrations--

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McQuade

Okay, the 504 demonstrations--we're talking about two different things. The demonstrations in '77, to force Secretary [Joseph A.] Califano to implement, to promulgate the regulations?

Jacobson

Yes.

McQuade

I was in college. I wasn't sitting-in. There were people who were sitting-in. They didn't sit-in for a month like you did out at Berkeley. I went and demonstrated outside. Those people who could demonstrate outside, demonstrated outside, and then there were the people who agreed to sit-in. I think Pat Figueroa and some other people--I don't know if Denise sat-in--but there were people who were sitting in on that. It was a coordinated national effort, I guess, but I don't know if Berkeley took the title for the longest sit-in. A guy who came to work for us at the center afterwards, Ben Welton--he became a Lubavitcher.

Jacobson

A what?

McQuade

One of the Hasidic sects.

Jacobson

Lubavitcher.

McQuade

Lubavitcher. They support Israel, and they believe--they're like Chabad house.

Jacobson

Okay.

McQuade

So he came to work for us, but he had been in that sit-in. He knew Judy Heumann and all of that. He had been in that sit-in out in California. When he moved east--he was from the Midwest somewhere--and he came to work for us, we discovered he had been in that sit-in. He knew Judy, and he knew different people I knew.

At any rate, I was one of the outside demonstrators, but I wasn't part of the sit-in. There were other people taking the lead on that, because I wasn't involved with DIA at that time.

Jacobson

You weren't?

McQuade

No. I left DIA. I think I kept up my dues--

Jacobson

Where were you?

McQuade

I was at NYU; I was studying to be a rehab counselor. During that time at New York University, there were access issues. We formed--this was Pat who came up with the name. There was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Stephen Hopkins, who had some kind of a disabling condition. I forget what it was. Pat found that out, so we called--Pat got his Master's Degree from NYU School of Public Administration. He came up with the idea of having--

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McQuade

Pat--I know--I forget if Marilyn Saviola was involved. I'm going back for one second in terms of the sit-in at the local--it was HEW [Health, Education and Welfare] then, HEW offices, at 26 Federal Plaza, I think, is where the sit-in was. Pat, I'm positive, was one of the people involved in that. He would probably be able to tell you who else were the prime organizers, but I know that there were people who demonstrated outside for a bit, and then there are the people who were going to stay the night, or however long it was until Califano promulgated the regulations. So, I know I went to the outside demonstration. But during that time also--Pat will have to tell you this--I can't remember when I went to NYU, which was the fall of '75--I don't remember if Pat was still finishing off, and I believe he was. I think he was finishing off his Master's Degree. He was working on that. There was a fellow who--I don't want to mix these two things up. Several things were going on. There was a 504 committee at the college; an implementation committee for 504 regulations were implemented. Once they were implemented, then the university had to have disabled students on this committee. There was a law student, Michael Schwartz,

[Portions of the tape inaudible through the end of Tape 5B. Some text added by interviewee after interview.]

He became a lawyer. He was deaf. He was on the committee. When we went to school, Pat came up with the idea of us calling the disabled students organization the Stephen Hopkins Society. That was our disabled students' organization. Pat was involved, and I was involved. At some point, Denise Figueroa came to work at the college in the disabled students' office, as I remember it.

That was the other thing: we were involved in hiring the disabled student advisor. It was the student's office, and we were involved in hiring a disabled student advisor. The man in charge of the student activities office spoke with disabled students.

Marcie Goldstein was at NYU, and she was in the rec program. I think Denise came to work there, as I remember it now. I think I had graduated when she came to work. I think she was working with the disabled student advisor that we hired. He was not my first choice. At any rate, Bobbi came from the rehabilitation counseling program. I think she was--she graduated--because she was working at the Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University Medical Center.

Jacobson

How did this come about?

McQuade

Okay, when I went there, we were over in the East Village, the rehabilitation counseling program was in the East--and there was a ramp to get into the program--the kinds of things we were looking over when we were there were program accommodations for students. I felt there should be a disabled student advisor. Several things happened. In '78, there was this big demonstration in support of transbus. It was by the UN, it was on First Avenue. Participants blocked First Avenue at rush hour traffic. The point was that we wanted the New York City Transit Authority to buy this bus. So, the strategy that was worked out was that people who were willing to be arrested would not leave when the police told us to leave.

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Jacobson

Who was--?

McQuade

The late Phyllis Rubenfeld, as I remember it, was one of the people who were organizing the demonstration because she was a board member of the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities. I used to go to those meetings when I was a borad member of DIA--I used to go to those meetings. I don't recall being a board member. Judy was on the board. [I knew] a variety of people who were on the board. But I remember attending the meetings as one of the delegates from New York, I was in DIA then. I think that was an effort on the part of ACCD to enforce some section 504 requirements for proper access in the transit industry by requiring transit providers to purchase this accessible bus. DIA people were involved in it. Bobbi was in that demonstration, I was in that demonstration. It was a non-violent protest, of course, with civil disobedience. When the police arrived they dragged us from the street and those willing to be arrested kept going back into the street. I asked the cop who pulled me out of the street, "Are you going to arrest me, or what?" I went back into the street. He said to me, "Don't worry. You're getting arrested." He put his foot--wedging it in the front wheel of my chair--I couldn't move my wheelchair. So I couldn't go forward. When reinforcements arrived he told two cops to arrest me--one was a black cop and the other was a white cop. So they're walking away, pushing my chair and they're apologizing all the way to the police car. I was about to get into the police car, when Phyllis yelled to me to refuse to get in the police car and so I was lifted into a "paddy wagon." I was taken to an accessible police station on 51st Street and issued a summons for disorderly conduct and released. But there was TV and newspaper coverage of the incident.