BUFFALO, N.Y. — BJ Stasio was born with cerebral palsy.

"I don't look at it as a curse, I look at it like as a gift,” the disability rights advocate said. “And my gift is to help others advocate for what they want and need.”

Before the pandemic, BJ used to use public transit every day. But he says doing so was sometimes a chore.

"Say you take the fixture bus, which is the big bus. Sometimes the lifts don't work,” he said. “On paratransit, sometimes you're on with other people, which is OK because we all have to use it, sometimes it's a longer wait. And now with the pandemic, they're short of drivers so sometimes they can't provide you the service that you need.”

Now he's hopeful as steps to improve the public transit experience for those with disabilities are in the works. During this year's legislative session, a bill sponsored by state Sen. Tim Kennedy and Assemblymember Jon Rivera, was passed through the Senate and Assembly and now awaits action from Gov. Hochul.

"What our bill does is it ensures that any individual with a disability has a seat at the table in the decision making process for these public transportation authorities," Kennedy, (D) Senate - Buffalo, said.

That bill, if approved, would require the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority, Capital District Transportation Authority and Central New York Regional Transportation Authority to have a voting member on their boards that is dependent on public transportation due to a temporary or long-term disability that they have. The voting member would be appointed by the governor after being recommended by local and statewide transit advocacy organizations.

"Nobody knows what it's like to have a disability except for us, and when we're the voting members on the board, we can say, ‘this is how the disability community feels about this situation,’" Stasio said.

BJ says while he's thankful for those who pushed for this bill to be passed, there's still a long way to go for equity for the disabled.

Gov. Hochul's office did not immediately return a request for comment when asked if she plans to sign the bill into law.