Marilyn Saviola

Marilyn E. Saviola (July 13, 1945 – November 23, 2019) was an American disability rights activist, executive director of the Center for the Independence of the Disabled in New York from 1983 to 1999, and vice president of Independence Care System after 2000. Saviola, a polio survivor from Manhattan, New York, is known nationally within the disability rights movement for her advocacy for people with disabilities and had accepted many awards and honors for her work.

Early life and education On July 13, 1945, Saviola was born in Manhattan at the New York Hospital. Her parents, Peter Saviola and Camilla 'Millie' Saviola, who had no other children, were Italian immigrants who ran a candy shop/luncheonette in the Bronx. In August 1955, a few weeks after her tenth birthday, Saviola contracted polio. She was hospitalized at Willard Parker Hospital, a communicable disease hospital, and placed in an iron lung for two months. The polio caused her quadriplegia; she used a wheelchair and a ventilator.

Because her family's home was not accessible, Saviola lived at Goldwater Memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island during her teen years. Saviola was part of creating the hospital's ward for young adult patients, with more age-appropriate routines, activities and outings. She later earned a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling from New York University. She met activist Judy Heumann at LIU, where they were both students. While working at Goldwater Memorial, Saviola assisted individuals with severe physical disabilities and helped them with transitioning from living in the hospital to living in the community. She was executive director of the Center for the Independence of the Disabled in New York from 1983 to 1998, and vice president of Independence Care System after 2000. Saviola worked for state legislation to support community living and independence for disabled New Yorkers.

Saviola had particular interest in disabled women's rights and health issues. In 1979, she spoke at one of the first conferences on disabled women's lives, sponsored by the New York City Commission on the Status of Women and the Mayor's Office for the Handicapped. Her fellow speakers included disability rights activists Sandra Schnur, Maria Nardone, and Frieda Zames. Her advocacy work was credited in 2019 at the opening of a new radiology unit at NYC Health + Hospitals' Morrisania location in the Bronx, which featured accessible examination tables and mammography equipment.

She helped found Concepts of Independence in 1977, which The New York Times described as a non-profit corporation "to enable users of home care services to interview, hire, supervise and dismiss their own assistants." In 2015, she received the Henry Viscardi Achievement Award for her lifetime of work in disability rights and in 2017, the New York State Disability Rights Hall of Fame inducted Saviola as part of their inaugural class of inductees.