Casandra Xavier Makes Her Own Path

How disability activist fights for rights (and for cleared and walkable sidewalks)

Casandra Xavier is an avid walker and runner. In fact, she plans to compete in the 2028 Boston Marathon.

Her multiple disabilities, including partial blindness and deafness, don't prevent her from living her life the way she wants to.

But what does get in her way is the same crumbling infrastructure that everyone must navigate, especially cracked, blocked and snow-and-ice-covered sidewalks. Having to worry about someone flying down the sidewalk on an electric bike or scooter is also a frequent problem for her. And, another thing are the people around her who fail to accept her own abilities. It's those strangers on the street who grab her arm while she’s holding her cane, and think they can lead her to where she wants to go with little idea that she's been navigating Boston for most of her 36 years without a problem.

A disability and civil rights advocate and assistive technology trainer, Xavier has, in fact, been pushing for better walkways, speaking at a City Council hearing and challenging politicians to experience the world as she does. She learned she had to put up a fight, ever since she was in grade school and bullied by a classmate whom she pummeled for constantly making fun of her for how her eye and ears look.

STEPPING UP: Casandra Xavier posed for a photo last week. Photo by Adam Smith

Sampan caught up with Xavier, who lives in the North End, as she will be honored at the Abilities Dance Boston show “Intersections v5” on April 17 and 18 at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. Following is a lightly edited version of the in-person interview with Xavier:

Sampan: In recent years, we hear more and more about inclusion, but yet we still see problems in the infrastructure that we all use, the sidewalks, crosswalks and other walkways. What do you think of this gap (in what people say about inclusion and what actually happens to improve accessibility)?

Xavier: A lot of people say they want to be inclusive and they want to have people with all kinds of disabilities being involved. To me, it sounds like it's just word salad to look good. But in actuality, when someone or multiple people with disabilities do come forward and they want to participate, all of a sudden, the gate-keeping and the barriers arrive, along with the very poor infrastructure.

Sampan: Do you ever feel like people are fine with people with disabilities unless they actually speak up for themselves, like there's resistance when people become active?

Xavier: I have to remind everybody that we are in 2026 and to try to silence someone with visible or invisible disabilities, should almost be a crime. It should be a crime. We have had the Americans with Disabilities Act for 30-plus years — why are they still trying to hide us like we’re some kind of societal mistake?

We are not supposed to be hidden. We're a part of society, too. We belong. All disabilities belong, just as everyone else without a disability, and they tell us to be quiet. Now we get even louder. They try to hide us, now we come out and step directly into the spotlight. Do the opposite of what they are doing to us, to silence and keep us hidden.

I've spent so many years fighting to have my voice heard and fighting for proper, respectful visibility. We're not asking for favors. Once again, we're asking for our basic human rights, basic civil rights, to be respected. Just because we have a disability or multiple disabilities, we're not a mistake. We are a part of society, and we're good enough to be in the same space as other people without disabilities. So now that I've had the opportunity to make my voice be heard, I'm going to tell it like it is honestly, because honesty is the best way that we're able to move forward.

Sampan: When it comes down to it, isn't it all about autonomy, about having what you need to be able to be as independent as possible?

Xavier: You mentioned autonomy, you know, and my lights went off — like my autonomy to walk down the street with my white cane extended without a complete stranger just coming out, grabbing me on my shoulder or my arm, assuming they know where I want to go. They assume that they know where I want to go. Or, they grab someone's wheelchair or rollator to push them, which is extremely dangerous, and it's extremely offensive to our autonomy. My white cane is an extension of my body. I tell them, “Don't touch my cane, it's a part of me,” because it is my additional tool to be able to see where I'm going and navigate in my environment properly and safely.

We do not just randomly acquire these devices without proper training. So, respect our autonomy. You know, it's OK to ask us if you can help us, and if we decline, politely, don't be offended and don't get all mad and screw up your face because we said, “No, thank you.” You shouldn't expect us to be groveling for help. There are a lot of very independent disabled community members, and it's OK if we say, “No, thank you.”

Sampan: I read a story about you, about when you were little, and how a kid was teasing you. Could you talk a little bit about that and what it was like?

Xavier: When I was a kid, I got bullied (by another kid) because of something I could not control. It was the way my eyes were formed when I was born and my ears. I was born with two separate conditions responsible for my blindness and my deafness, and him bullying me made me very insecure about those two things that I had never thought twice about until that time. He bullied me relentlessly for days, and I was already upset because I didn't want to transfer to that school in the first place. I enjoyed going to a school in Mattapan and then I had to switch over to a school in the North End around students I did not know. So, I was mad already, and him coming along, bothering me made me even more upset. So when I got a hold of him in the playground, I beat him up like I saw the wrestlers did at WWF, and teachers let me get a couple of swings in. They realized he was losing badly, and had to separate us so too much damage wouldn't be done. But prior to me giving him my version of a WWF beat down, I had removed my prosthetic eye and put it in a napkin and stuffed it into my pocket, and then I went full on him for bothering me and his bullying was quite short lived.

Sampan: How old were you at the time?

Xavier: I was about eight years old; it was in 1998.

Sampan: What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen over your life for people with disabilities:

Xavier: The biggest changes that I've seen have been in technology. Technology gave us access to information really fast. I've watched it happen over the 1990s, 2000s and early 2000s and now, and access to information is rapid. You know, if you want to learn about certain kinds of disabilities. You can find it on social media like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, medical libraries online and so forth. A lot of stuff is out there that helps people increase their knowledge about certain types of disabilities, versus back in the ‘90s or ‘80s, when you literally had to go to certain places and call around.

Now, almost everyone has a smart device in their pocket, not only that, to mention the smart glasses, the AI glasses, they open up the world for a lot of blind and visually impaired people like myself.

Sampan: What kinds of tools do you use to navigate the world on a daily basis?

Xavier: Well, the technology that I use today, in this day and age, it's a collection of things. I use a Braille display; a computer with screen reader on it; I use an iPhone with VoiceOver; I use a Bluetooth hearing aid; and I use Meta smart glasses. So as I'm navigating outside, I may want access to immediate information directly in front of me, and I'll command my glasses to look and read, to tell me what it is, or describe what's around me, or even tell me the weather right on the spot.