Brittney Montgomery was born deaf. She and her mother are the only ones in her family that are deaf, and they navigated the hearing world together. Brittney has no regrets, and says her deafness has helped her become who she is today: the City of Buffalo’s Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator and the city’s first ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) advocate. 

"I’m talking to people daily, so if they have ADA concerns they can reach out to me [and] they can talk to me about it," Montgomery said. "If there’s any disability events, they can reach out to me. I can put them in touch with other people. Sometimes I represent the mayor."

She also connects programs to the disabled community and ensures input from those who are disabled is heard. 

"There’s a difference between experiencing something and watching other people experience something, so I do believe my background directly impacts my ability to see certain things because there’s a lot of things that people don’t realize," she said. "But by me being in the role, I can ensure that people always see different perspectives."

Brittney has been busy since she started the job in May.

"Some of the projects that I have completed is ensuring that we have all the proper paperwork and documents that are ADA related," she explained. "I’ve been also working on a lot of upcoming grants we did. Mayor [Byron] Brown and the Department of Public Works recently received funding to transition the City of Buffalo towards ADA compliance. We’re going to focus on ADA ramps. We’re going to focus sidewalks. We’re going to focus on code management."

She’s also working on creating a Disability Advisory Committee, which will consist of residents of Buffalo with a wide range of disabilities. 

"We’re all going to come together, we’re going to meet [and] we’re going to talk about the city of Buffalo," she said. "We’re going to go out to various public services, various public buildings, to ensure that all these agencies and buildings and services are providing accessibility to those with disabilities."

You can learn more about the position here.