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PROFILE:
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This space is now a desirable ground-floor apartment, with ample room for him to maneuver his wheelchair in and out, a bedroom that doubles as his office, a kitchen, bathroom and a living room. His constant companion, Lili, is a 2-year-old Chihuahua. In the hallway entrance to his apartment, there is a sign that reads: "Please put mail for Mr. Trocchia on a chair." That's because Trocchia cannot reach the mailbox from his wheelchair.
Trocchia was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, a disease that slowly wastes away the muscles in the body, when he was 3 years old. This "wasting away" he described as a gradual process, something he knew "was coming." When he turned 11, he stopped walking, and had to rely on a wheelchair to move. The limitations that Trocchia experiences as a disabled person are many. One is not being able to use his local subway, Graham Avenue Station on the L line to get to Manhattan, a trip that would take a nondisabled person 15 minutes. Instead, he takes buses. This can take up to two hours, with all the waiting at bus stops and heaving on and off buses. But these limitations have propelled Trocchia to fight for more. His latest battle is for equal subway access for disabled people. Much of what drives Trocchia is his activism. Since last October, he has been president of Disabled in Action (DIA), a volunteer group that advocates rights for the disabled. "I realized I didn't have to accept things the way they were, and I was very angry. But anger is good if you channel it correctly," he adds. His key to success and survival are his constant goals. "Believe me, I've sat there and felt sorry for myself. I've been depressed," he says. But he knows he is getting things done and improving life for other disabled like him. "America is a nation of joiners -they join too much and do too little," he observes.
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PHOTO:
Susana Seijas
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USEFUL LINKS: NY State Industry for the Disabled Anthony Trocchia can links |
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or
Anthony Trocchia, a disabled 31 year old, accessibility and space
dictate how he lives his life. Trocchia does not live in a custom-built
home. He made his home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, out of an old
storage room on the first floor of a house owned by his parents.
ut
as with most things in his life, Trocchia has learned to adjust.
He has been resourceful from a young age, a fact he attributes to
his parents' lack of English when he was growing up. "I had to make
phone calls for them, read them the paper, answer queries, you name
it," he says of his parents, who immigrated to New York in the early
'60s from Naples, Italy. 
y
wheelchair is second nature to me now, and if I were to become not
disabled tomorrow, I wouldn't know what to do," he says. 
