Former college hockey player turned philanthropist Travis Roy told state officials and disabilities advocates he knows how it feels to be ostracized as a person with a disability, but he also knows how empowering if can feel for those who have a disability to find employment.
As a college freshman at Boston University, Roy became paralyzed from the neck down after suffering a neck injury in the first 11 seconds of his first collegiate hockey game. He’s used a wheelchair for the last 24 years of his life.
Roy, who gave the keynote address Monday at the Governor’s Summit on the Employment of People with Disabilities, encouraged the attendees to find solutions to employment barriers for those with disabilities.
“There may be a few bumps in the beginning when you hire someone with a disability, but they’ll be as loyal as any other employee you’ve ever had,” Roy said. “Because they just want someone to give them the opportunity, and the respect, that they can do the job as well or better than anybody else.”
He said his worldview transformed after the injury and that learning to accept that he would be bound to a wheelchair after spending his life as an elite athlete was incredibly difficult. But, he said, over the past decades, he’s seen promising progress in accessibility standards.
“It’s been really frustrating to basically be in the exact same position I was 24 years ago. The medical science, it hasn’t progressed,” Roy said. “But you know what has progressed? The technology. The opportunities. The Americans with Disabilities Act is in full bloom.”
“There’s just still a few more barriers,” Roy said. Which is why he said that he’s hopeful to see dialogues around transportation solutions being pursued by Vermont officials.
Summit attendees drafted regional and statewide goals and solutions to encourage employment among those with disabilities, with a specific focus on transportation obstacles that keep those with disabilities from getting to job sites. Many of the solutions focused on making public transportation more accessible for remote populations.
Monica Caserta Hutt, commissioner of the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living, said that creating transportation solutions for rural areas are essential because of Vermont’s severe workforce shortage.
“Vermont cannot afford not to utilize every single Vemonter as a part of our workforce,” Hutt said. “So we all have to pull together and make it possible for individuals with disabilities and older Vermonters who want to be working to work.”
Rural transportation accessibility is an area of development Gov. Phil Scott said at the summit that his administration wants to prioritize. He said he’s particularly excited for a new project that the Agency of Transportation is attempting to cinch more federal funding for called microtransit — an on-demand form of public transportation that doesn’t run on fixed routes.
“It’s like using an Uber-type approach,” Scott said. “It’s individualized so you don’t have to wait for that one bus to come.”
Participants also suggested that the state create more riding programs that can take those with disabilities to interviews or job sites and create marketing campaigns to educate the public about transportation resources that are already available. Scott said he will assess the recommendations and he plans to adopt the ones that “make sense.”
Roy said the first step to creating a more accessible world is by starting a conversation, which he was encouraged to see officials doing at the summit.
“There’s not a one size fits all solution,” Roy said. “Getting everyone in the room is the first thing to do, to build a dialogue.”
