Written by Pat Wright

Former Director of Governmental Affairs at Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)

One can go on the Internet and find a long list of Tony’s published lifetime accomplishments. But that doesn’t reflect the multiple, behind-the-scenes, tangible contributions he has made over decades to facilitate landmark disability policy reforms because this is what a Disability Whisperer does.

During his long career, Tony has played this crucial role for many different segments of the disability community, the business community, the White House, the U.S. Congress, foreign governments, and likely countless others we have never heard about. His behind-the-scenes negotiations have changed the face of disability policy in the U.S. and worldwide.

I can’t think of any disability policy since 1988 that doesn’t bear Tony’s fingerprints, even though a forensic study would never reveal them. In most cases, his role as Whisperer meant that one might not see him in action, but the result reflected his stealth influence.

Tony’s tenacity, passion, and negotiation skills were the disability community’s secret weapon behind the passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act (ADAA), the laws that ended second-class citizenship for over 70 million disabled people living in the U.S. He twisted arms, sweet-talked, or just downright manipulated Congressmembers to support these landmark civil right bills. When a member was stuck, we sent in Tony. When the business community was turning the tide against the ADA, we sent in Tony. I will always remember when Tony invited me to “breakfast” at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. He failed to tell me the other guests were the “guys” from the over-the-road coach industry, the entity that could have derailed the ADA. As I sat down, Tony said, “Do you know that the Peace Corp. was conceptualized here at this very table? We will make history here again today if we can find a compromise.” He found a compromise that Greyhound and the disability community could live with.

Tony has influenced policies that affect disabled people across vastly different issue areas including civil rights, employment, and Internet and website accessibility. He has been a bulwark in healthcare and public health, working tirelessly to stop the use of Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs), which discriminate against people with disabilities or chronic health conditions. He organized the disability community to oppose QALYs and lobbied to prevent health systems from using them to determine healthcare norms.

He led the charge to stop the U.S. Census Bureau from adopting new disability questions that would eliminate about 20 million people from being counted as disabled and therefore dramatically affecting program funding and disability policy. He was the driving force behind making the National Democratic Convention accessible to people with all disabilities. Using his famous inside/outside strategy, he was a primary influencer who led both political parties to recognize the disability community as a political force in the voting booth.

Not only has Tony been an invaluable legislative asset to the disability community, but he has also been a mentor, confidant, and guide to its leadership. Maybe that stems from his desire to be a priest, but his ability to listen, support, and comfort is extraordinary. He has helped the disability community evolve into a viable lobbying force by subtlety, and sometimes not so subtlely, offering guiding counsel, even when we would be clear that we might not share his opinion on the issue. Despite our occasional disagreements, his most admirable quality would still always emerge: to educate.

His work has changed the world for over 70 million disabled people in the U.S. and has influenced how the rest of the world understands disability. We will forever be grateful.