Abby Dziura: Advocate for Accessibility 

By Ella Paul, 2024

Published 4/3/2023

Image courtesy of Abigail Dziura

It is not everyday you have the privilege of meeting someone like Abby Dziura. Someone whose passion is contagious and whose positive energy radiates off of them. Someone who you end your conversation with and immediately think you might have just talked to the coolest person you have ever met in your life. 

Abby is a Cheshire High School graduate from 2020. She was involved around the school community, most significantly being a part of the Rampage (editor-in-chief) for two years. Since then, she has gone on to college and is studying at Fordham University in New York, and each day, she notices the importance of her experiences at CHS and the impact working on the Rampage has had on her life socially and professionally. She says the Rampage made her more open and willing to step out of her comfort zone through what she described as “the why not mentality: the most interesting things I did were when I was like, let me just try something new.” The Rampage also has a lot of collaboration, planning, and behind the scenes work involved that prepared her for her college life and professional settings because they taught her practical skills and the importance of deadlines as well as some graphic design skills, all of which she still finds useful. She is so grateful for her Rampage experience because she found it so valuable and, simply put, fun. 

This school year, as a junior at Fordham University, Abby was given the opportunity to apply for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, sponsored by a foundation that hopes to identify future leaders in public service. Candidates for the scholarship must have been nominated by their current college and pursue a public service career. They also had to submit a public policy proposal outlining their plan to address a current issue in society. Out of hundreds of applicants, Abby has made it through multiple rounds to the final group and just completed an interview in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Abby’s public policy proposal stems from her love of the subway and her passion to make it accessible for all people. Going to Fordham and using the subway as a mode of transportation made her realize how inaccessible it is. As subway stations are updated, designers are focused more on aesthetic rather than accessibility. Yet what these designers do not take into account is the impact that aesthetics has on people with disabilities. For example, people with vision impairments might need high contrast colors to navigate.

At the end of the day, Abby’s goal is for a totally “accessible subway, but [she is] a realist.” To get as close as possible to this goal, her current mission is to advocate for people with disabilities' voices to be heard so that accessibility is prioritized in budgeting. She states, “it’s not an afterthought, it’s a priority. I want to help people recognize why it is a priority.” Policy makers as well as average citizens often don’t realize that disabilities come in many different forms and that most people will at some point develop a disability in their lifetime or have a temporary disability due to an injury. Even if people are not affected individually, everyone matters and should have equal access to the subway and other resources, and Abby's goal is to make that accessibility a reality. 

In addition to this incredible work, Abby is involved in a lot on campus at Fordham. She is part of the honors program where she and her tight knit group of peers focus on advanced academics and work on event planning. Most notably, she worked on a committee planning events for LGBTQ+ history month and is in the process of planning a Lavender Graduation, which is a ceremony to honor the achievements of students at the university in the LGBTQ+ community. 

The city has offered Abby countless opportunities in the realm of work experience as well social or volunteer activities. She worked as an intern at Lincoln Center on the accessibility team and is now working to promote inclusion. Additionally, she is training and fundraising to become a character volunteer who visits children in hospitals. 

As a young adult who has found her passion and spreads her enthusiasm with others, she has some advice for current high schoolers still seeking their passion, mostly centered around trying new things. “Try new things, it sounds silly but it's always true, and don’t be afraid to keep going. Jump all in.” Through her experience, she has found that college is the perfect place to try new things because everything is easily at your disposal and there are infinitely many professors who would be willing to explore your interests with you, and if that interest doesn’t prove to be as rewarding as you thought it would, it’s okay to change it as long as you give it a fair chance. In Abby’s endeavors she has found that you have to “be ready to put yourself out there, which is super scary, but ultimately worth it.” 

Without people like this, we would see no positive change in society. Abby’s dedication to her passion and willingness to advocate for others is admirable and inspirational. Thanks to Abby, people with disabilities in New York City have a voice advocating for change to create a future where accessibility is the norm and the rights of all people are respected.