A Farmville man recently received the Safety Champion Award from the NC Vision Zero Safety Awards in recognition of his advocacy for accessibility and pedestrian/bicyclist safety. The awards are closely linked to the state's safety network and the NC Governor's Highway Safety Program.
Disability advocate Steven Hardy-Braz was nominate for the award by Farmville Mayor Alex Joyner, who was elected to lead the Pitt County community last November. Joyner said, “Truly his work speaks for itself. All you have to do is just put it on paper and get it in front of someone. And he's just, yeah, he's such a great member to have here in our community.”
Hardy-Braz has spent four decades in psychology and said his years working with deaf people initially sparked his continued accessibility advocacy. He said, “When I was working at Fort Bragg for quite some time, I started working with a lot of soldiers who were coming back with a lot of physical injuries. And we would work hard to make sure they have an accessible home or something, and sometimes it'd be mortgage-free. But I realized it was frustrating and there was a lot of mental health problems that they were struggling with because their communities weren't accessible. They may have an accessible home, but they couldn't go anywhere. They couldn't go see friends or church or shop or do anything independently because the sidewalks were missing ramps or there wasn't transportation.”
An avid cyclist, he turned that focus toward biking safety as well. But a cycling accident made the mission, "Very personal when I got hit by a car in 2021, and now I need mobility devices myself to get around," he said.
Now using a wheelchair, Hardy-Braz was later arrested for “willfully impeding traffic.” He was waiting in a driving lane for a bus because the stop lacked a curb cut and was inaccessible to mobility devices. He said, “Bus stops are a huge inaccessible issue, which led to my arrest and being jailed in Greenville, which was not pleasant. But if that's the cost of what this awareness and advocacy takes, then I guess I had to take one for the team.”
Following his arrest, Hardy-Braz noted that even the sidewalk leading to the Pitt County jail booking door was inaccessible. “Any one of us is a car crash or a medical situation away from having a significant disability ourselves and we need it," he said, "So, if we can build our environment to be more accessible for everybody, then we can age in place and we can stay where we are and we can all be more protective members of society.”
He notes that a federal civil rights law signed by Richard Nixon means equal access has been a legal mandate for more than 50 years. “Section 504 of the Rehab Act of 1973 mandated that these would be accessible," Hardy Braz said, "So now we're talking 1973, you know, over 50 years ago. How much longer do we need to wait for them to be made accessible?”
Much of his work targets his home area of Farmville and other areas of Pitt County. Hardy Braz said he is still asking, “Why they haven't done these things, including Farmville, which is working on it, other towns in Pitt County, some of Greenville itself, and other places, they have a lot of work to do. That's where I've been able to advocate to encourage, educate, expedite, and then sometimes filing federal lawsuits or federal complaints for investigations against in these towns that aren't willing to comply with federal law.”
Mayor Joyner says Hardy-Braz's persistent pressure has driven tangible administrative changes inside Farmville town hall. “Because of him is why the town of Farmville is actually moving to become ADA compliant and getting our very first ADA coordinator that is being contracted out," the mayor said, "And even now, last night at our town hall meeting, he still got up there and spoke about it...it's been almost a year now since PIM has come out here, done their evaluation, and they've been in process of putting together...this overall plan for us to work through. And where is it?”
Though Hardy-Braz's uncompromising approach often draws public pushback, the mayor considers his vocal presence a critical community asset. “It has put him in a negative light," Joyner said, "And his dedication to that advocacy Is just so, it fills my heart because it has helped me to be able to have a platform to be informed, to be knowledgeable, and to bring, incredible programming here to Farmville and to make change in Farmville that I can guarantee you we would not be anywhere close to where we are right now if it wasn't for his voice.”
Hardy-Braz says the criticism and adversarial lawsuits made the NC Vision Zero Safety Champion Award a surprise. “Ironically, the Governor's Highway Safety Program, which I really respect highly, is actually housed under NCDOT. So, it's kind of ironic that NCDOT is kind of giving me an award for sometimes forcefully advocating or budding heads with them, perhaps," he explained. “It's a great honor because to me, it feels like some of my professional peers are recognizing that I'm doing something that's a little different. And I'm with others trying to make sure that people see that if we really want safer roads for everyone, then we also make sure these districts are accessible. Because if they're not accessible, they can't be safe. And if you use a mobility device, the research that we have says you're seven or eight times as likely to get killed using the roadway.”
