Denise Mc Quade turned a passion for independent travel into a career.
By Donna Fredericksen
Getting from one place to another-independently- was always a cause that Denise Ann Mc Quade could rally around. Independent travel means so much to her, in fact, she’s made a career of it.
Mc Quade, who was diagnosed with polio at age 3 and a half, now works as Public Information coordinator in the paratransit division of MTA/New York City Transit, which serves a population of 14.6 million people in the 5,000-square-mile area fanning out from New York City through Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut. It was a long, not too strange trip to get where she is today.
When she was 14 years old in the early 1960s, Mc Quade, who had been home tutored for most of her school days, needed to learn how to maneuver the two flights of steps out of her apartment building so she could board a bus that would take her to public school for the first time. “The bus had a lift for my wheelchair, which was much easier to use, since walking with my braces was exhausting,” she says. “But I needed to get down those steps on my own, and that was tough since I had an innate fear of falling.” Still, she persevered and was able to attend public high school in her native Brooklyn.
“I had a very good physical therapist who desensitized my fear, even before that word was hip,” she recalls. Mc Quade found her niche writing for her school paper and served as student council president, graduating in 1966.
Heading off to New York Community College (now called NY Technological College), Mc Quade faced another commuting problem. “In those days we had a van service—you’d face sideways and they would place a bolt through your wheels. There were no standards, though, and securing my chair sometimes meant they’d use a rope. And the ramp into and out of the van sometimes was made with two doors on hinges,” she reminisces, chuckling. “I really wanted my own car!”
Making Her Way
As she continued her education, Mc Quade obtained her driver’s license, her first car, and her first job. She began networking with other people with disabilities whose obstacles, barriers, and trials and tribulations had a familiar ring. With the indelible ethic her mother
taught her (“The world is not going to change for you, you have to make your own way in the world”), she was eager to take on rampant discrimination against people with disabilities. She was ready to attack the lack of accessible public transportation, education, housing, jobs, and so forth with militant force. After all, it was an age of radical protest and demonstrations.
“There are several things I am proud of,” Mc Quade says. “I’ve been an activist in the disability rights movement since co-founding Disabled in Action in 1970. We succeeded in winning our civil rights in 20 years with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. And I am proud to have had the privilege of working with two uber-advocates for accessible mass transit, United Spinal’s Terry Moakley and Jim Weisman.”
Mc Quade became a member of United Spinal Association on January 4, 2004, but she has worked with the organization for some 30 years on the passage of accessibility legislation, including the federal Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA and New York City’s accessibility legislation, Local Law 58.
Mc Quade also served as executive director for Brooklyn Center for People with Disabilities from 1984 to 1992. She has held her position at the Paratransit Division of the Department of Buses at MTA/New York City Transit since 1992.
“People think that hiring someone with a disability is going to be a problem for them,” says Customer Relations Officer Carol Zwick, Mc Quade’s supervisor, “But I would argue it’s not a problem and it really brings strength and diversity that makes us actually a better group. People have skills that transcend their disabilities.”
As example of Zwick’s point, look no further than Denise Mc Quade: A tireless advocate and educator, Mc Quade has extensive experience working on transportation issues, including implementation of the ADA at MTA/New York City Transit. She is also the liaison to the Paratransit Advisory Committee and coeditor of On the Move, a newsletter on accessible mass transit and paratransit.
Donna Fredericksen is Public Affairs director.
