United Spinal Supporter
First in an occasional series about allies of the disability rights movement
As the owner of BillyBey Ferry Co., William Wachtel helped oversee New York City’s longest-running ferry company and, in conjunction with NY Waterway, was responsible for 32 boats that carried more than 32,000 passengers every day.
Needless to say, he was a busy man.
But when he received a call from United Spinal Association CEO James Weisman — at the time a complete stranger — asking why disabled people had to pay for their attendants’ fares on the NY Waterway ferry when they didn’t have to on paratransit rides, Wachtel changed the policy immediately. Weisman made sure Wachtel knew the law didn’t necessarily require such a change, but Wachtel instantly recognized the injustice. “I have a passion for all people who are the subject of discrimination,” says Wachtel, “whether it’s for race, creed or disability.”
And, a year or so later in 2016, when United Spinal Association became aware that the Statue of Liberty Ferry was dangerously inaccessible, Weisman dispatched a staffer who uses a power chair to board the boat. “It was indeed dangerous,” says Weisman. “Eventually Bill’s law firm took the case directly, for free.” That case is still wending its way through the federal courts.
Why did Wachtel take the Ferry case? For the same reason he immediately changed the Waterways policy when the problem was brought to his attention. “Just the same simple fact that people should not be discriminated against,” says Wachtel. “It’s that simple.” And for him, it is.
Son of the Civil Rights Movement
Wachtel, who is the founder of the Wachtel Missry law firm, grew up with the civil rights movement — literally. His father, Harry Wachtel, was Martin Luther King Jr.’s lawyer and close friend, and the two families socialized together. To this day, Wachtel is close friends with Martin Luther King III, and they both serve on the board of the civil rights organization their fathers started, the Drum Major Institute.
His family background explains his drive to fight racial discrimination. But often, people who readily see how one group is mistreated are not always able to understand another group’s struggle. How did Wachtel come to realize disability rights are civil rights?
It all started about 10 years ago when Wachtel was president of the commercial vehicle company Karsan, which built a fantastically-accessible entry for New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s ill-fated Taxi of Tomorrow contest. In fact, it would have been the first totally ADA-compliant automobile ever produced in the world. Unfortunately, the contest winner was the miserably-inaccessible NV200. But during the contest, Wachtel got to meet prominent disability rights advocates, including Sen. Tom Harkin, who was the original sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Wachtel was impressed by Harkin’s passion and conviction about disability rights and reflected on how both the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act were signed into law on the same Presidential desk. Wachtel shared his thoughts with Weisman, who replied that disability rights are an extension of civil rights. “People with disabilities are often treated as second class citizens,” Weisman told him.
“I said, wow, Jim, you’ve got me,” says Wachtel. “And from that day forward I always saw the rights of the disabled as [the same as] the rights of people who are discriminated against because of color.” And today Wachtel is a rock-solid supporter and ally of disability rights and United Spinal Association.